The Voters favor or The revenge of the Sovereign.
Election posters of 30 years - photographed by F.C. Gundlach
Wählers Gunst oder Die kleine Rache des Souveräns.
Wahlplakate aus drei Jahrzehnten – fotografiert von F.C. Gundlach

21 August - 27 September 2009
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe (Arts and Crafts) Hamburg


The eyes of a fashion photographer
on the manipulation of election ads

The next German election is announced to be the country's first election which will be decided online. Let's have a look back to the 70ies through the eyes of one of Germany's most important living photographer and collector of photographic art, F.C. Gundlach (born 1926) to check how the voters manipulated the election promotions in their favor - or as revenge in former times.

On occasion of the beginning election campaigns, the Hamburger Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe (Arts and Crafts) exhibits F.C. Gundlach's photographic works of manipulated election posters of the last 30 years from 21 August until 27 September 2009, Germany's election day.

fig.: Wilfried Hasselmann, CDU Bundestagswahl, 03.10.1976 Helmut Schmidt vs. Helmut Kohl. Photo: F.C. Gundlach.

The fashion photographer focuses on the interaction of the voters with the election posters; and not the posters themselves. The voters' interaction produces new content, motivated by the promises of the politicians and their messages. The self-staging of the 'prominent' politicians are the main target of the sovereign's revenge who expresses on this way his/her doubt in the truth of the political statements.

The museum invites to analyse on more than 80 photos the anonymous dialog between politicians and voters in the public space - especially on street posters with graffiti, stickers, writings, color attacks or (such as on this page below) strategic cracks. The effect of this interaction hasn't changed since the 70ies: the message of the poster is re-written by the active voters on the street.

Today, it's the internet where the Germans will find in the next months the new 'posters' such as faked or not-faked entries on blogs, un-paid and paid twitter chatter, voters' keyword rankings in search engines with 'enriched meanings', or classical banner campaigns and their manipulated zombies. The 'street art' from the 70ies has developed many ways to stay anonymous online.


Find details about the exhibition on www.mkg-hamburg.de. The biography of the photographer F.C. Gundlach, statement, portfolio, exhibitions... are published on his website www.fcgundlach.de.


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fig.: Helmut Kohl, CDU Bundestagswahl, 03.10.1976 Helmut Schmidt vs. Helmut Kohl. Photo: F.C. Gundlach.