Opening of the exhibition "Jenseits der Grenzen" by Johanna-Maria Fritz.

One of her pictures depicts Taliban fighters who, in spite of their victory, seem suspicious, angry and disoriented – in other words vulnerable, and for this very reason dangerous. Another image portrays a Ukrainian soldier whose blank look conveys the incomprehensibility of war. In the spring of 2022, photographer Johanna-Maria Fritz was one of the first foreign photojournalists to enter the country post-invasion; she recorded events in Bucha, Kharkiv and the Donbas. These photographs were already featured in a large-scale exhibition at Willy-Brandt-Haus, and can now be seen again as part of the EMOP Berlin 2023. Ultimately, Fritz’s images demonstrate that documentation and aesthetics are not mutually exclusive and that beauty can accentuate the terrible. In this regard, the works are modern icons.