SCREAMING SILENCE IIII

After three years of preparation, Alexander Maria Lohmann
travelled to Syria for two weeks in May/June 2019,
right into the middle of a war that had been smouldering
for eight years. Tourists are not welcome, taking
photographs is strictly forbidden and suspected espionage
is punishable by death. Lohmann was subject to
police and military controls at countless checkpoints,
he was under constant observation and had to endure
nightly interrogations by the secret service.
And yet, with his Leica Q2, he succeeded in taking unique
pictures that with luck and finesse he was able to
smuggle out of the country. Despite the inconceivable
destruction, his pictures seem almost aesthetic in a
surreal way. „ I felt perfectly at ease, all alone in
the devastated zones. You stand there, profoundly alive,
and are grateful to see things that no one else can
ever get to see. In the right light, these motifs seemed
beautiful to me.“