Rafael Heygster | Lumix Festival für jungen Bildjournalismus

Rafael Heygster
"I Died 22 Times"

Some airsoft playgrounds have their own fleets of vehicles, both civilian and military.

Young soldiers in dress uniform march at the International Defence Exhibition and Conference (IDEX).

Employees of an arms manufacturer wait for customers at their IDEX stand.

At the opening ceremony of the International Defence Exhibition and Conference (IDEX) in Abu Dhabi, potential customers are shown the latest technical developments in the arms industry in a 20-minute presentation involving pyrotechnics, actors and multimedia storytelling.

Airsoft player Len with his girlfriend, Nina, and boxer, Diego, in Len’s apartment in Hamburg. Len’s great-grandmother was killed by the National Socialists at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. He says “playing war” with airsoft guns is just a game for him and has nothing to do with reality.

At IDEX in Abu Dhabi, a trade-fair visitor watches a presentation of fighter planes and warships.

Garbage bags filled with straw are meant to look like body bags. They are part of a role-play element of Dark Emergency, Germany’s largest airsoft festival.

The secret highlight of “Operation Endzeit – Rollender Stahl” (Eng.: Operation End Time – Rolling Steel) is a stripper’s performance on the final evening. Her appearance had been the talk of the participants for days.

At IDEX, businesspeople from various countries learn about a vehicle equipped with machine guns.

This airsoft playground near Brożek, Poland, has a decommissioned Russian T55 tank in its fleet. Participants are offered the pleasure of a tour with this combat vehicle.

Airsoft player Jan, battle name “Bones”, owns an entire arsenal of airsoft weapons that he keeps under his mattress. Depending on the features and level of detail, airsoft weapons can cost sums of three or even four figures.

International trade-fair visitors film fighter-plane manoeuvres at IDEX in the United Arab Emirates.

Two young women watch a live demonstration put on by Czech forces on Family Day at IDET, an armaments fair that takes place in Brünn. The staged firefight with blank cartridges and smoke grenades involves actors playing soldiers, some of whom are “shot”. After the show, they all get up and leave the arena alive.

Manuel K. works as a gardener and landscaper. He started playing airsoft about a year ago after a friend took him along. He prefers airsoft to video games because he can move around outside.

Matthias V. at an airsoft game in the Christmas season. He has leased the land and organises games as well as workshops whose content is based on military training.

Jan, a carpenter, comes from a family of hunters and grew up with guns. He is crazy about guns and can quickly disassemble and reassemble airsoft pistols and rifles.

After performing at the opening ceremony of the IDEX fair, a military band leaves the stage. During the show, a security guard watches over the audience.

Rafael Heygster’s photographic work depicts and scrutinises the ways society deals with war beyond actual battlefields. For this project, he has visited the International Defence Exhibition and Conference (IDEX) in Abu Dhabi, a weapons trade fair where potential clients are presented with the latest technology in the arms industry along with theatre shows, buffets and pyrotechnic displays. He has also gone to airsoft playgrounds and photographed people who spend their free time playing war against a backdrop of tanks and body bags. Germany has officially been at peace for more than 70 years; however, war no longer appears only as military conflict acted out on battlefields. Rather, it appears in society again and again in abstract form. All the scenarios depicted have one thing in common: no one dies. War is presented as something entertaining and harmless – and thus experienced as something that can be consumed.

Artificiality
Play
Violence
War

3 Questions

1. The door opener: Can you describe a formative moment in your career as a visual journalist?

The decision to become a photojournalist was the best step I’ve taken. So many great things have happened since then. To me, photography is the key to the world. Of course it’s hard, but working in visual journalism makes me happy.

2. The decisive moment: When did you first encounter your topic and why did you decide to cover it photographically?

Since a class trip, many years ago, to the former concentration camp Auschwitz, which is now a museum, I have been friends with another participant on the trip whose great-grandmother was killed there. Years later I saw that he regularly publishes photos of himself in military uniforms and with weapons. Airsoft is his hobby. I started photographing it and have stuck with the topic.

3. The future: What could the visual journalism of the future be like?

I think it’s important for visual journalists to not just reproduce things that already exist, but to have their own attitude towards the world and be both honest and curious. And to be open to the unfamiliar – be it people or new visual narrative forms. Then visual journalism will be timeless.

Photographer Rafael Heygster answers 5 questions about his work I died 22 times.

Curated by Jan Nasemann

*1990 in Bremen, Germany
After completing his studies of cultural anthropology and political science, Rafael Heygster studied Photojournalism and Documentary Photography at Hanover University of Applied Sciences and Arts and the Danish School of Media and Journalism in Aarhus. The focus of his work as a freelance photographer is the relationships between individuals and their social, cultural and ecological environments, for instance the ways society deals with war beyond actual battlefields, or with long-term psychiatric treatment.

www.rafael-heygster.com
@rafahey

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