Celebrated German artist Herlinde Koelbl visits Auckland Festival of Photography as a guest of the Goethe-Institut. She will exhibit her work "Targets" as part of the festival's theme "Control". The exhibition features a selection of stunning photographs showing military targets from all over the world.
Herlinde Koelbl is one of the major political photographers in Germany. Her photos addressing burning issues of the time have made her known worldwide. Koelbl combines a journalistic documentary approach with high artistic standards in a way uniquely her own.
The project "Targets" is a particularly impressive example of this: for years Herlinde Koelbl travelled around the world, and in a total of thirty countries made photographs of the military targets used in the training of soldiers.
"Targets" raises questions such as: How is the enemy, who is later to be killed, portrayed? As an abstract figure or with a face? Do the targets exhibit cultural differences? Have the images representing the enemy changed? Furthermore, in the reality of war, the soldiers themselves are always ultimately the target. Therefore the series also includes portraits of the soldiers - the living targets.
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