With everything that’s been happening in Europe lately and the EU struggling to cope with the biggest wave of migrants and refugees its ever known, it’s interesting to discover Polish photographer Josef Schulz’s Übergang series – meaning Crossing – which explores abandoned military checkpoints across the continent.
Uncovering every corner of Europe, Schultz digitally fades the background surrounding each redundant station as though they are shrouded in fog, allowing these forgotten borders to stand out and make an impact.
Interestingly, each former checkpoint no longer belongs to anywhere. They just sit, going to waste with broken or shuttered windows, rusty doors and peeling paint – merging the past with the present. And although the border police are long gone, and the buildings themselves are quite harmless, they still provoke an unsettling feeling – potentially conjuring up bad memories of the past when Europe was divided by borders.
This particularly holds true for Schulz, as he hopes his series will highlight how these physical traces of borders are impossible to forget. He explains: “Borders were lines, drawn not only across territories but also through our heads.”
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