The aesthetics of politics are often confusing. The Israeli West Bank Barrier will eventually stretch for 436 miles, separating Israel from the West Bank with the explicit intention of halting Palestinian terrorism against Israeli targets. If only it were so simple. Monumental in scale – solid concrete, 8 metres high – the wall’s route has rended communities in two, destroying families, farms and businesses. And yet it makes a devastating photographic subject, stark and unyielding as it winds through the landscape, in turn covered with murals or graffiti or simply blank, impersonal and foreboding. Wiedenhöfer’s images are striking, but unavoidably sad.
Friday 16 May 2008
