Matthias Kern: Vanishing Dresden

Dresden is often considered a baroque city full of a rich history and picturesque vistas, right in the heart of Europe. This description, however, hides the fact that the city has been largely destroyed during World War II and should serve then as a terrain for the new communist urbanism. Today, this heritage is mostly hidden and the mayors pretend it is not there anymore. Over the course of the last three years, I took street photos right in the newer parts of the city in order to show this denied face of Dresden. In doing so, I have been inspired by the photography of liminal spaces and by Giacometti’s metaphysical paintings, trying to express the feeling of disappearance. The German laws for street photography turned out to be helpful in this context: since candid street photography is practically forbidden in Germany, people just present themselves as shadows, silhouettes or small anonymous figurines highlighting the desolation of each scene.