The Terrible City – Gaza 2009 by Heinrich Völkel (August 20, 2010) 
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Introduction by Sophia Greiff
From June 16th to June 20th 2010 the second Lumix Festival for Young Photojournalism took place in the city of Hannover. Along with lectures of renowned photographers, panel discussions and portfolio reviews, more than 1400 images were presented in sixty exhibitions. The majority of the displayed work impressed with its high photographic and narrative quality – and opened the eyes for individual tragedies and stories that would have been left unseen without the curiosity and sensitivity of these emerging photojournalists. In his work “The Terrible City – Gaza 2009” German photographer Heinrich Völkel focuses on the urban structure of a city that has been the centre of violent confrontations between Israelis and Palestinians since the 1970s. It is a city of ruins and debris, in which people are attempting to regain a state of normality. Showing a life in improvised circumstances, Heinrich Völkel also has an eye for the special aesthetics of the ruins: A destroyed house that is bent like the man praying on the ground in front of it; a view through the window of a shattered building into the blue clouds appears like an optimistic painting in a desolate surrounding; the last deer in the zoo of Gaza standing in front of an idyllic background. With scenes like these, Völkel shows the destruction of the war but also the beauty within the chaos.
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Our poll "A photo essay always needs a great written story" closed. 267 people voted, 28% agrees, 72% disagrees. 233 people answered our follow-up question "Are you a photographer?" 82% indicated they are, 18% said no. Initially, negative answers to question #1 were almost 100% as was the pecentage of photographers among respondants. Then, when the level of non-photographers started to rise, the percentage of people indicating good text is always essential started to rise too. This seems to indicate that non-photographers think that adding good text to your photo essays is essential. In my opinion: if you want non-photographers to dig your work, you know what to do...
Destroyed by an armed conflict raging for more than sixty years, the city of Gaza remains in abeyance of destruction.
I went to Gaza in March 2009 shortly after the end of Operation Cast Lead to document the state of the city and the faith of the people living there, driven by the wish to answer myself a basic question: „How much city does it need to stay in an inhabitable urban space?“
For most of the inhabitants the lack of choices leads to the immediate need to live within the limitations and possibilities of the present condition their urban space is in.
I want to document the state and future of the city. By focusing on aspects of architecture in the aftermath of conflict, I want to create a powerful portfolio of photographs, honestly describing how absence or presence of architecture defines the urban space, the habitat and living conditions of the survivors.
Taking pictures in a war zone for the first time of my life, I quickly realized how to transform my contradictory emotions into an honest account of what I have seen and experienced.
Heinrich Völkel (1974) lives and works in Berlin and Wiesbaden, Germany.
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