Martin Roemers: Relics of the Cold War

The infrastructure of the Cold War outlasted the confrontation for which it was built. In Relics of the Cold War, Dutch documentary photographer Martin Roemers went looking for its material remains.

For more than ten years he returned, again and again, to the countries that had faced each other across the Iron Curtain: eastern and western Germany, England, Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland, Ukraine and other former East Bloc states. He went down into underground tunnels. He photographed abandoned control centers, old barracks, wrecked tanks and ruined statues — the ordinary equipment of four decades of deterrence, stockpiling and rehearsal.

The project ranges across the former East-West divide, placing the physical remnants of opposing systems within one documentary inquiry. Tunnels, control centers, barracks and monuments make political confrontation visible through what was built for it. The publisher’s account is blunt about the intended effect: in these pictures the arms race and the politics of deterrence still look vivid and ongoing, and the work is offered as a reminder for a future of peace.

Hatje Cantz issued the English-language book in September 2009: 144 pages, 73 photographs, hardcover, 257 by 285 mm. Nadine Barth edited it; the texts are by Barth, H. J. A. Hofland and Roemers himself. Publication accompanied exhibitions at The Hague Museum of Photography (7 November 2009 – 17 January 2010) and the Willy-Brandt-Haus in Berlin (9 November 2009 – 15 January 2010).

For a collector, the interest lies in the duration behind the pictures. This is not a single passage through photogenic ruins but a long inventory made across the former dividing line. The subject is the physical legacy of a twentieth-century state confrontation, and Roemers approaches it as a documentary photographer, tracking what the confrontation left behind in the landscape.

The Cold War is over, yet its traces are still visible. For forty long years, the Iron Curtain divided Europe into East and West; atomic-bomb shelters were built, weapons stockpiled, emergency drills carried out. Dutch documentary photographer Martin Roemers (*1962) decided to track down the remains of this period. For over ten years he repeatedly traveled through formerly hostile countries on both sides of the line: through eastern and western Germany, England, Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland, Ukraine , and other former East Bloc nations. He descended into underground tunnels; photographed abandoned control centers, old barracks, wrecked tanks, and ruined statues. In his images the era of enmity, the politics of deterrence, and the arms race appear ongoing and vivid, serving as a reminder for a future of peace.
 

Exhibition schedule: The Hague Museum of Photography, The Hague, November 7, 2009–January 17, 2010 | Willy-Brandt-Haus, Berlin, November 9, 2009–January 15, 2010
 

Edited by: Nadine Barth
Texts by: Nadine Barth, H. J. A. Hofland, Martin Roemers
English
September 2009, 144 Pages , 73 Photos
hardcover
257mm x 285mm
ISBN:978-3-7757-2534-7

Publisher page editorial text:
| Impressive documentary photographs of remnants of the Cold War
The Cold War is over, yet its traces are still visible. For forty long years, the Iron Curtain divided Europe into East and West; atomic-bomb shelters were built, weapons stockpiled, emergency drills carried out. Dutch documentary photographer Martin Roemers (*1962) decided to track down the remains of this period. For over ten years he repeatedly traveled through formerly hostile countries on both sides of the line: through eastern and western Germany, England, Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland, Ukraine , and other former East Bloc nations. He descended into underground tunnels; photographed abandoned control centers, old barracks, wrecked tanks, and ruined statues. In his images the era of enmity, the politics of deterrence, and the arms race appear ongoing and vivid, serving as a reminder for a future of peace.
 

Exhibition schedule: The Hague Museum of Photography, The Hague, November 7, 2009–January 17, 2010 | Willy-Brandt-Haus, Berlin, November 9, 2009–January 15, 2010

Publisher source ↗