Saturday: Inspiration Through Closure

Mum lives in NW Germany where the British Army has had a significant presence for over 60 years.  At the end of next year, the Joint Headquarters will be closing down completely.  It is hard to explain the huge impact this is having on the local economy and labour market.  But there is also something very desolate about the army base itself, which saw so many families passing through and which is now nothing more than a husk.

Until she retired last year, Mum worked for the British Forces Germany for 34 years, 25 of which were spent at Joint Headquarters.  Two local photographers recently spent two months on the camp and documented the winding down of the camp.  We went to see the exhibition today which is a brilliant body of work marking the decline of a way of life.

The exhibition was wonderful on many levels. It has given me a lot of food for thought.  The most touching photos were the very simplest......but it has also made me think about the power of documentary photography or, at the very least, thematic photography. Something to think about as I am about to head into year 3 of blipping.........

Photographs were not allowed in the exhibition, unsuprisingly, so I had to content myself with the outside wall.