A drive through Western Anatolia will delight you with beautiful sights: green or yellow cat eyes staring at you while they walk on the heavy stonewalls, the spots of pine green trees and dry grass growing on the light brown earth, the boats floating in the turquoise water of the Aegean Sea. Within these fields of trees lie the grids of sea water ponds which produce salt, one of the most precious minerals that enabled us to thrive.

Salt is probably one of the most important and least appreciated minerals that humans interact with everyday. It is essential to our health that we consume salt, it prevents countless accidents on the cold and icy highways in winter and it tastes undeniably delicious on our morning boiled eggs and fresh tomatoes. In fact, salt is considered one of the most indispensable materials of the chemical industry. Other industries that require salt include petroleum and additives, glass, paper, rubber, textiles, dyes and waste and water treatment. This means that not one camera could have ever been invented without salt!

Solar or sea salt production is the oldest and least expensive technology available and it needs specific weather conditions to work. Where the evaporation rate exceeds the precipitation rate – or dry and warm places like the Mediterranean – the sun and wind will evaporate the water on shallow sea water ponds, producing a concentrated brine. The brine is then placed in a crystallizing pond, where the salt begins to crystallize. Once the salt crust has been formed, the excess water is eliminated to finally extract the raw salt. The rocks of raw salt are then taken to a processing plant, where they are washed, dried, milled, dosed, sized and packed, all according to the recipe each plant has developed.

… my strongest guess is that it was the pirates and their depiction in popular culture that made me admire their buccaneering life whilst sailing through turquoise waters, drinking rum, hunting for treasures and being constantly aware that there shall be no ‘r’ spoken without at least two additional ‘r’s in pursue – as in Arrr. Over time, my eternal admiration of these plundering alcoholics decreased somewhat, but my fascination and interest in the region that gave birth to those very stories stays unbroken. The Caribbean, its cultural heritage, geographic location and history are truly rich and colorful – except the part where colonial overlords destroyed the civilizations and enslaved its people.

I am already looking forward to the next time my journeys take me far West again. Too many places still unseen, too many islands I probably haven’t even heard of, too many people I haven’t met… I certainly desire to continue exploring this intriguing region to document its beauty, a memory for this diary. The Caribbean is, aside of the obstacles that its societies face, a magical region of this world well worth preserving.

It might very well be that I do not manage to see every corner of the Caribbean or hear every story told about it. However, the charm of this region leaves me no choice but to dedicate a lifelong rum diary to it. This long-term project is exclusively shot on film – 35mm and 6x6 medium format.

Gabon, a place where oil reserves, tropical beaches and political dynasties come together… a fertile base for poor living standards and sharp socio-economic inequality. Back in the late 1960s, not long after Gabon gained its independence, oil explorations made an interesting discovery. Former President Omar Bongo – the world’s longest ruling non-monarchic leader – must have thought he hit the jackpot when he heard they assessed a ten-fold increase of oil reserves to be found underneath this tropical paradise. Concession were granted, the drilling started and President Bongo – long did he reign – found himself in the uncommon position of having infinite funds coming out of his private property, aka Gabon.  

As the truly fascinating life of President Omar Bongo, the infinite turned out to be mortal and his son, President Ali Bongo – long may he reign – faces the consequences of non-diversified oil economies: high debt, stagnating revenues, soaring corruption and crushing poverty.

The latest and greatest from Gabon are news of another oil-boom, but not from underneath. Palm oil should compensate what fossil fuels can no longer deliver. This will result in a vast deforestation of the tropical habitat for many species and nutritious vegetation. The tropical rainforest not only feeds many in region but it also provides various resources that the local population sells in order to afford essential services such as telecommunication, medicine or electricity. Aside of the few potential employees of the palm oil industry, this economic transition will increase the already crushing poverty that hundreds of thousands have to endure in this small state.

Gabon remains an opportunity for a few and the bitter end of the line for many. The people you are being acquainted with on these photographs are representative of many fathers, mothers, siblings and grandparents that see no hope and stare at a bleak future. A bleak future inherited by President Bongo and prolonged by President Bongo Jr.’s preferred style of doing politics.

* On 30 August 2023, Gabon experienced a coup d'état just after it was announced that the sitting president, Ali Bongo Ondimba, had secured victory in the general election on 26 August. Despite being Ali Bongo's cousin and a member of the Bongo family, Nguema's involvement in the coup marked the end of the Bongo family's 56-year dominance over Gabon.

Imagine a nuclear power plant explodes and your government is trying to conceal it. A bizarre thought that became bitter reality on April 26^th, 1986 in Ukraine (back then part of the Soviet Union).

The political lethargy in Moscow after the nuclear meltdown in reactor four of Chernobyl’s nuclear power plant just added to the suffering of soviet comrades and their children. Thousands were exposed to radioactive material in amounts that spell certain death way before the clean-up had started or the politburo of the Communist Party even acknowledged that this disaster even happened.

That’s the end of the history lesson. The viewers are free to investigate further and come to their own conclusions.

The nuclear exclusion zone is surreal. It is very unfamiliar to be in an empty urban environment that is being reconquered by nature with wild animals running stray. As for humans, we are dependent on the Geiger counter telling us which roads to take or rooms to enter. Without it, it is impossible to avoid critical radiation exposure, a deadly force we cannot smell, hear, see, nor can we feel or taste it.

Much has changed in the past years. Due to international aid, effort and ingenuity, the old concrete sarcophagus no longer sees the light of the day. The Chernobyl reactor is shielded by a new safe confinement, which reflects bright and silver from afar. Its primary function is to keep the radioactive remains of reactor four concealed for the next 100 years – to the extent possible.

Today, people are returning to Chernobyl’s exclusion zone. It is not because the environment got miraculously cured of its invisible poison but the need for affordable and available living space has made it appealing to those on the bottom of society to return. The war in Eastern Ukraine creates massive pressure on the corroded Ukrainian institution and densely populated areas. This leaves some families with little choice but to take up residency in the shadow of Chernobyl’s former glory.

Nuclear power, a prominent and controversial technology. One leading argument of the nuclear power debate for this technology is the low carbon footprint and low amounts of waste it produces – in comparison to fossil fuels.

Unfortunately, the low pollution that is being celebrated is by itself quite difficult to handle, given the fact that high-level radioactive waste consists of an array of elements that have varying half-lives. Throughout the time it takes one-half of the atomic nuclei of a radioactive sample to decay, or its half-life, the radioactive waste remains highly toxic to humans, animals and consumable vegetation, such as mushrooms. For example, the isotope Plutonium 239 has a half-life of about 24,000 years meaning that after 24,000 years of nuclear decay, half of the extremely toxic Plutonium 239 will have decayed to Uranium, then to Thorium, Protactinium, Actinium, Thorium (again, but different isotope this time), Radium, Radon, Polonium, Lead (still unstable), Bismuth and Thallium. Lastly, it decays to Lead 207 – this time stable. The other half of the decaying Plutonium is still around though, waiting to decay in a second half life in yet another few thousands of years, and so on.

Long story short, nuclear power plants might emit less carbon dioxide than the combined amount of carbon emissions released by car, jet and cargo ship engines on a daily basis. Yet the consequences of handling high-level radioactive waste are very problematic. In fact, radioactive waste management is so problematic that the German parliament voted to renew the nuclear storage selection law (called Standortauswahlgesetz) – which regulates the criteria for nuclear waste storages – to add several tighter guidelines. Amongst them was the demand that the storage facility has to be able to store decaying nuclear waste for “one million years”.

No one wants high-level nuclear waste stored close to their home, certainly not for the next million years – or the next 39.999 generations from your child on.

For people of the northern province of the German federal state of Lower-Saxony called Wendland, this unsettling thought of living around nuclear waste is a reality for decades already. The German government decided to store vast amounts of nuclear waste in the nuclear waste storage facility Gorleben. The nuclear waste storage facility Gorleben is frequently present in the news because of leaking barrels and other malfunctions.

People are expressing their discontent with the reality of living close to hazardous radioactive pollution by taking to the streets whenever a convoy of trucks is transporting more nuclear waste to the storage facility. The relocation of the nuclear waste from La Hague, France to the storage facility near Gorleben is overseen by a large police deployment and the nuclear waste has always reached its destination.

Nonetheless, the time it takes for the waste to reach its destination may vary due to the creative anti-nuclear protest movement and their pivot to both block the routes and achieve an absolute nuclear power phase-out. As of 2021 the interim-storage is being closed down since no permanent solution for storing nuclear waste in Gorleben is feasible.

Inspired by the Tales of the Jazz Age, I discovered a flyer while strolling on the streets of Hamburg one afternoon of nostalgia – Bohème Sauvage, society for sophisticated entertainment.

Feathered hats swinging from left to right to the sound of the Roaring Twenties, a sip of sparkling wine as the pianist fills the room with a fine Jazz, the idea of a night shrouded in a fog of mystery and sweet temptation… it was a night I had to live for myself.

The first Bohème I visited left me wondering where I took the turn that led me through a time-traveling portal straight to a celebration in the company of Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald. The sweet smell of perfume in the air, the heavy red velvet drapes behind Burlesque dancers flapping their eyelashes, the desire to let our sassy minds loose for a night, it all made me forget which age I was born in. Absinth pours in the glasses until the early dawn, the dealers shuffle the cards for those wishing to play their luck, the laughter and excitement of a night of uninterrupted swing dancing fills the room. The sunrise heralds the end of this golden night and before the sun stands high in the sky, the bacchanal ends and we are back in the present – quite tired.

The photo essay has been shot (for now) in Berlin, Frankfurt and Hamburg and is an ongoing project. If I could pique your interest or you want to tell me about the next #cannotmiss event, feel free to contact me.

The story Bohème is exclusively shot on 6x7 roll-film.

From 2002 to 2014, the Bundeswehr took part in the ISAF Mission Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, it transitioned to Mission Resolute Support the following year. In 2012, about 4,900 German women and men served within the regional command in the northern districts of the country.

Approximately half of those soldiers are garrisoned at Camp Marmal, a container town near Mazar-e-Sharif. All others stay and serve for four months in smaller camps around Kunduz or even more isolated, so-called forward operating bases with simple infrastructure like Pol-e-Khomri. For most of them, their ISAF assignment does not remain a one-time experience.

At home and during their missions abroad, the members of the Bundeswehr are guaranteed access to off-duty offers, such as gastronomic services, sports facilities or German media supplies. Occasionally, special events on stage which are organized through external support are part of these offers as well. Such activities, which only conduce to entertainment and personal diversion, are highly controversial among military leaders: whereas some consider cultural amusement as a strengthening of minds and combat readiness, others point out that stage happenings during military operations in international conflict areas are simply misplaced and inappropriate.

Already for the third time, two Christian organizations set up a musical tour through the ISAF camps in Mazar-e-Sharif, Kunduz and Termez in October 2012. Especially for the young singers from Bremen, who all just started their musical career, the days in ISAF-Camps have been a remarkable experience. During their stay, their hosts and audience — around 900 almost exclusively male soldiers — became their camp guides, dormitory neighbors and table mates as well. To the soldiers, particularly for those stationed outside of Mazar-e-Sharif, the singing guests from home were meant to bring some pleasant distraction from the everyday duties. In the words of an officer in the camp: "After weeks working in the dust, those hours reminded me that I’m still a cultural being."

These are portraits of individuals from all walks of life as well as single shots, landscapes and mini series, that are simply not developed enough to call them a story. Miscellaneous photographs worldwide, both analogue and digital, various formats and processing stages.