The new year begins with an escalation of the conflicts in Syria.
After months of stalled negotiations between the Islamist transitional government and the Kurdish self-administration in north-eastern Syria, fighting has broken out again in northern Aleppo. While numerous Kurds are once again being displaced and the civilian population is suffering from the violence, Ursula von der Leyen travels to Damascus to talk to the Syrian ruler Al-Sharaa about important financial aid and the future of the country. While the cases of the massacres in Suwayda and Latakia are still unresolved, voices are once again being raised to denounce the displacement of and war crimes against the Kurdish population. The attacks on Ashrafie and Sheick Maqsood in Aleppo marked the start of a major military offensive that was to have taken over large parts of the Kurdish region just one week later.
Amid the turmoil, Syria's people are calling not only for international support, but above all for one thing - peace.
Together with @annatherestless (Text) and @yaser._.shahrour (Local Producer), we reported on the humanitarian situation in Aleppo and Afrin for:
@taz.die_tageszeitung & @woz_die_wochenzeitung
Under Assad, Syria has become a narco-state: he used the drug Captagon to finance his war against his own people. Now the dictator is gone, but the addiction remains.
The Hope Center is located in Afrin, near the Turkish border, in a villa with a light-colored stone facade, many potted plants, and a basketball hoop in the courtyard. Funded by France and Qatar and run by Syrian NGOs, the Hope Center opened in January 2025. Just a few weeks earlier, the Assad ruling family, which had brutally governed the country for decades, had been overthrown.
“A real health crisis is looming over Syria, which will put us in danger unless all ministries sound the alarm,” says psychiatrist Muwaffaq Amouri (Ibn-Khaldoun Clinic in Aleppo). “It’s been a good year since the regime fell. But it still feels as though we’re only just beginning to clear the streets of its legacy.” For @fluter Magazine, my colleague Anna Thersa Bachmann and I traveled in January to northern Syria to examine the challenges and questions surrounding the future of Syria’s healthcare system.
Text: @annatherestless
Editor: @trineskraastad
Local Producer: @yaser._.shahrour
Today SPIEGEL published my ongoing long-term project “Ortskontrollfahrt” in the new issue of SPIEGEL Wissen.
Over the past years, I have been travelling through Germany, documenting how the country’s social climate is shifting.
The work examines how political decisions and social inequalities erode trust in democratic structures. It portrays people who feel unheard or disillusioned, as well as those who stand up for solidarity and democratic values; revealing a country at a crossroads. Working with a slow, research-driven approach, I seek to counter populist narratives through depth, context, and human stories. By listening, observing, and allowing complexity to unfold.
A more extensive selection , including detailed captions and background information, can be found on my website. After the past exhibitions, I’m now developing a new form of presentation while continuing to work on this project.
Special thanks to @inka_recke and the picture desk of SPIEGEL for this publication and to everyone who has supported this.
My project “Ortskontrollfahrt” is now on display in collaboration with @dboersephotographyfoundation and @goetheinstitut_paris as part of the group exhibition “Metamorphosis – States of Change” during @parisphotofair .
How can change be made visible? Eleven students from the @visualjournalism.de program explore political, cultural, ecological, and digital transformations through their works - revealing how change shapes our perception of the world, identity, and society.
Open: 13.11.2025 - 12.01.2026
Goethe-Institut Paris
Curated by: @amibeckmann , @_karenfromm & Christoph Bangert.
Tech Support: @hugolivet & @miguel_miceli
Thank you for you're great work and support.
Together with:
@ludwig_nikulski@max.says.yes@lea.nowicki@antonia.teichert@claraschoettke@1234cecilie@noraschwarz_@hannah_aders@valentin.goppel@paulgeiersbach@jasp_rhill
Image 1: On October 9, 2019, an armed right-wing extremist carried out a terrorist attack on the Jewish community at a synagogue in Halle. On Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism, the attacker attempted to enter the synagogue with firearms and explosives to kill the people inside. He was stopped at the entrance and killed two people during his escape.
Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier for Süddeutsche Zeitung @sz
Text: Christina Bernd & @felix_huetten
Photo Editor: @natalieneomi
In SZ / No. 170 / July 26, 2025
Arles, France - 07.2025
Between Arles, the sea and a car breakdown. A rather personal collection of banal but beautiful scenes that remind me why I started taking photographs.
#arles #recontresdarles #arlesphotofestival #arlesphotographyfestival #marseille #southfrance #france #banalmag #makemeseenmag #documentary #documentaryphotography #documentaryphotographer #docu #dokumentarfotografie #fuji #fujifilm #fujifilmdeutschland #reportage #reportagefotografie
for Süddeutsche Zeitung @sz
"The coronavirus pandemic and its consequences have divided families, colleagues and the country. How can we talk to each other again, what do we need to talk about?
Five years ago, a then new virus forced the world to a standstill....Today, that's all over. More than two years ago, the last mandatory measures were introduced in Germany. Vaccinations, past infections - the population has become largely immune to the virus. Those who are infected usually only have a mild illness - cough, cold, fever. The virus has lost its terrifying power. But the time of the pandemic has not.
A journey to meet people with very different views on what coming to terms with the past really means."
Text: Christina Bernd & @felix_huetten
Photo Editor: @natalieneomi - Thank you!
In the current edition of SZ / Nr.170 / 26.07.2025
Today, Friedrich Merz became the first chancellor candidate in history to be elected to the German Bundestag at the second attempt. In his campaign, he was not afraid to make common cause with right-wing extremists and repeatedly reproduced populist narratives.
While I continued to work on my long-term project ‘Ortskontrollfahrt’ about the ongoing shift to the right in German society, I gathered some impressions behind the scenes of his election campaign.
1) On the evening of the 2025 federal elections, it becomes clear who is happy at the end of the day, when conservative politicians reproduce far-right narratives instead of countering them with constructive content.
2)Political stage at the Konrad Adenauer Haus Berlin.
3)During the election campaign, it is becoming clearer than ever how sensitive the role of media professionals is in our democracy. Who do we give a platform to - and who not? Not whether but how?
4) Friedrich Merz shortly after his election victory in the Bundestag elections.
5)A suitcase from a special police unit. The suitcase contains explosive samples that search dogs will use to search rooms where candidate Merz will be before party events.
6)Special police unit, before an appointment with Friedrich Merz in Halle, Saale.
8) A handshake behind the scenes of the Domero Hotel in Halle, Saale. The Merz campaign offered a revealing look at the political alliances he is willing to consider - despite his repeated public denials of cooperation with the AfD.
Assignment for Süddeutsche Zeitung @sz „Claudia Wiesemann is one of the most progressive minds in her field. Whether abortion, surrogacy or the treatment of trans adolescents: she represents particularly progressive positions. Her brother Karl-Heinz Wiesemann, on the other hand, represents a decidedly conservative institution, the Catholic Church. How did the siblings come to develop so differently and how do they deal with their divergent positions? A conversation about the question of how you can remain in dialogue with each other even in different worlds." Interview: Christina Bernd & @felix_huetten Photo Editor: @natalieneomi - Thank you!
In the current weekend edition of SZ / Nr.91
For portrait or reportage inquiries please visit my website. Im open to travel 🧳
Happy to see my excerpt of "Ortkontrollfahrt" on this years Nikon Fotobus Grant Shortlist, alongside many other strong and important works.
In my work "Ortskontrollfahrt", I document the ongoing shift to the right in German society. My images present various aspects of social tension and aim to capture, through a diverse range of protagonists, how distrust in politics and the loss of faith in democracy provide fertile ground for the growth of right-wing extremist forces. In the initial phase of my project, I concentrated on the discourse that emerged in the summer of 2024 concerning the prevailing atmosphere in East German society. In the recent state elections, the AfD emerged as the strongest force in some eastern German state parliaments, presenting Germany with one of the biggest right-wing populist challenges since the fall of the Nazi regime. After the German government coalition collapsed in November and the election forecasts continue to show worrying predictions, my work is facing a new chapter.In the upcoming months, I will continue my work on this topic throughout Germany.
Thanks to the Nikon Photobus Grant and its Jury for recognizing the project.
@fotobus_society@nikondach
The project will be exhibited at GAF from next week as part of the VGH Photo Prize, opening with a vernissage on Wednesday 4 December at 7pm.
Exhibition
04.12.2024 - 12.01.2025
GAF - Gallery for Photography
Seilerstraße 15d, Hannover
@gaf_eisfabrik@visualjournalism.de
1)At a folk festival in Kemnitz, Saxony, a farmer looks into my camera. The man sits calmly for hours next to his loudly rattling engines, which he is exhibiting at the event. In conversations with visitors to the event, I keep hearing that people feel left behind by politics. They talk about a lack of awareness of the ‘really important issues’ for people in the province. At the festival I saw a large number of Neo-Nazis and experienced the normalisation of everyday racism in rural areas through racist posters.
After an excerpt of my project "Ortskontrollfahrt" made it to the Shortlist of this year's VGH Fotopreis,
I am pleased that I have been invited by the Forum for International Photography at the Reiss Engelhorn Museen in Mannheim, to give a lecture followed by an artist talk about my work.
I would be happy to welcome familiar and new faces to the event. Special thanks go to the curator of the house, Prof. Dr. Claude W. Sui, for the invitation.
Lecture & Artist-Talk:
17.11.2024 - 11:00 a.m.
Florian-Waldeck-Saal
Museum Zeughaus C5, Mannheim
@rem_mannheim@claudesui
Exhibition
05.12.2024 - 12.01.2025
GAF - Gallery for Photography
Seilerstraße 15d, Hannover
@gaf_eisfabrik@visualjournalism.de
1) Preparations for an AfD event in Dresden, during the Saxon election campaign finale, as part of the 2024 state elections.
