In the German post-reunification period, Ludwig Rauch photographed members of the neo-Nazi scene, some of whom are still active today. At that time, not yet aware of the media impact, they granted the photographer unexpectedly deep insights into their everyday lives. The “props” of extreme right-wing, racist violence–baseball bat, bald head, bomber jacket, Springer boots–became a symbol, a cliché, which is still prevalent today. Rauch’s photographs reflect exactly that image of the East German Nazi family. However, the presentation of his series as a slide show with a voice-over commentary by art historian Michael Freitag, removes the images from purely aestheticizing observation and adds another level to the work: inviting us to reflect on temporality and past contemporaneity and what the images tell us today.
Ludwig Rauch (born in Leipzig in 1960) grew up in the former GDR and studied photography with Arno Fischer. Despite the GDR-wide ban on publication, he extensively documented the socialist state and the period of transition and transformation which followed it. The selected series focuses on the part of his work dedicated to the documentary form of his early career.
