Picture this: Vulnerability

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Elena Helfrecht, Jörg Colberg, Rafal Milach and others respond to the state of vulnerability through image and text, as part of our ongoing series Picture This

The camera distils a moment into a fixed image, the permanency of which contrasts to the transient nature of an emotional state. Photographs can capture humans’ vulnerability and its causes. They may act as emblems of the emotion, and have the power to provoke it in others. 

How people respond to a sense of vulnerability varies greatly; we all find strength in unsure times in different ways. For instance, climate anxiety can leave one feeling small and helpless. However, the weight of the climate crisis can also be a call to arms, giving us strength, and the ability to view situations with emotion, clarity, and compassion. If a confession of vulnerability can become a source of power against inaction and denial, how can we use it to move forward; how can we learn from this state of emotion?

We asked six photographers to respond to the theme of vulnerability with image and text. Below, Elena Helfrecht, Jörg Colberg, Rafal Milach, Rafael Heygster, Valentina Abenavoli and Cansu Yıldıran present their responses.

Jörg Colberg

“I have always been fascinated by the title of a book written by Alexei Yurchak: Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More. Up until recently, larger political changes appeared to only happen to other people. In Yurchak’s book, it’s those who went to bed as citizens of the Soviet Union and woke up again as Russian, Belorussians, Ukrainians.. 

As someone who grew up in West Germany, I could have spoken with East Germans to hear about the very same experience. On a high school trip there, I did, however briefly. But it would take me many years before I did so again, this time when we were all citizens of the same country, Germany.

Even so, the idea that the political system I lived in would be under attack was something other people experienced — not me. This changed with the initially slow but then accelerated rise of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. In principle it’s merely one of the various far-right parties in German post-war history. In reality, it’s the one which not only made it into the Bundestag (and state parliaments) but also did so with a huge vote share. I had thought that everything would be revealed about the German Nazi past, to have the country turn for the better — until that was not happening anymore. Instead, racist and anti-semitic far-right violence along with political hate mongering by the AfD have been on a steady rise.

We mostly think of vulnerability as something that applies to individuals. But it has to do with the larger social and political structures we live in. Democracies have mostly relied on the assumption that they are the ultimate and most attractive political entities. But all over the world, we’re now seeing that that’s not the case. Democracies are finding themselves under attack — at a time when there are so many other, much more pressing issues to deal with (climate change, the pandemic). So now we’re besieged by a variety of hostile forces, and it’s not clear which ones will ultimately prevail. 

There is only one solution that I see, and it’s to make our voices heard. Not speaking up cannot be an option. We have to not only feel our own vulnerability but also everybody else’s.”

jmcolberg.com

Isaac Huxtable

Isaac Huxtable is a freelance writer, as well as a curator at the arts consultancy Artiq. Prior to this, He studied a BA in History of Art at the Courtauld Institute, followed by roles at British Journal of Photography and The Photographers' Gallery. His words have featured in British Journal of Photography, Elephant Magazine, Galerie Peter Sellim, The Photographers' Gallery, and The South London Gallery. He is particularly interested in documentary ethics, race, gender, class, and the body.