Photograph of my great-grandfather Ferdinand Schütte as a soldier, early 1916, in a family album. He was part of the field artillery regiment nr 61 from 1916 until the end of the war.

A French bayonet that my great-grandfather Ferdinand brought back from one of the battlefields of the First World War. After the Second World War, when it was forbidden to own weapons, he hid it in a wall of the house. It only reappeared decades later during renovation work. I was told that he was very surprised when it reappeared - he seemed to have forgotten that it was still behind the wall.

Self-portrait with my mother in our hotel room in Laon, France

My mother in a poppy field on one of the former battlefields of the Somme, near the so-called “ Schwaben Redoubt ”, Thiepval, France.The poppy became a symbol of remembrance for the victims of the world war. It goes back to the poem "In Flanders Fields" by a brigade doctor, who was impressed by the sight of red flowers on the devastated battlefields in Ypres. I photographed my mother as she strolled through the field of flowers and kept thinking about what this place must have looked like 110 years ago. It is very quiet on this day, you can only hear the distant conversations of a small group taking a guided tour along the war graves. There are many British visitors here. Very few Germans.

Self-portrait on one of the Somme battlefields. - Thiepval, Somme department, France.

My mother is combing her hair in our B&B room in Ypres. Her grandfather, Ferdinand Schütte, participated in the Third Battle of Flanders at Ypres. Since 1928, the fallen soldiers of the former British Empire and its allies who died in the Ypres Salient are commemorated daily in Ypres with the "Last Post," the traditional final salute to the fallen.

The Douaumont Ossuary is a memorial containing the remains of unidentified soldiers who died on the battlefield during the Battle of Verdun in the First World War. In front of it is the largest French military cemetery of the First World War, with 16,142 graves. - Douaumont-Vaux, Meuse department, France.

The Shape of F. S.

2023 - 2024

The Shape of F. S. is a personal exploration of my great-grandfather‘s history as a soldier in the First World War. Initially alone, and later accompanied by my mother, I travel along the former Western Front to understand how his war experiences have influenced our family history.
Field post letters from my great-grandfather provide clues about the places, times, and his emotional state. I use these historical fragments to reinterpret and continue the story 110 years later. This work is an interwoven narrative between myself, my mother and my great-grandfather himself.

The visual narrative of this project incorporates traditional documentary photographs of the contemporary landscape as one layer. The landscape is charged by its historical context. I’m interested in decisive places rather than the decisive moment. This is an attempt to visualize history and explore the point at which time turns into the past. This is complemented by various layers, including still lifes of found objects, interpretation of old photos, self-portraits and subjective moments experienced during my journey with my mother.

This constellation creates a dialogue between past and present, where uncertainty and the search for answers are constant companions. The focus is on an emotional approach to the emptiness and the unanswered questions. The aim of the work is to stimulate an emotional confrontation with historical wars and their culture of remembrance while leaving room for speculation.

Exhibition at Superraum Dortmund, Germany, from 10.10 - 02.11.2024

Arne Piepke

Arne Piepke

The Shape of F. S.