36 Details Statement

This work takes as its focus the image Sept.16. Modane from the series Log Book, which was exhibited and published in Berlin in 2020. It is inspired in large part by the military intelligence imagery I found at the National Archives in Kew, London, during my research. Modane is a town in the French Alps bordering Italy which was the target of a British RAF Bomber Command raid on 16th September 1943.

Additionally the differences between contemplating a subject up close and from distance, particularly within the context of conflict, led me to consider one of my own images in this way. This also coincided with a growing interest in abstraction and minimalism.

36 DETAILS | Sept.16. Modane is the result of the coming together of these different influences. You can find it here.

Oder-Neisse Statement

This work was inspired by an interest in my German grandfather's family which originated from Stettin, now the Polish city of Szczecin. It changed hands at the end of the Second World War and is the largest town on what became know as the Oder-Neisse line. This was the name given by the Allies to the post war Polish-German border which is formed by the Oder river in the north and the Neisse to the south. These borders have shifted many times over the centuries as different parts of Poland were annexed by Russia, Prussia, the Austro-Hungarian empire and lattery Germany. 

Initially a series of wanderings the work became influenced by the writing of Joseph Conrad and in particular his 1899 novel, "Heart of Darkness", which relates the story of a journey up the river Congo and deals with themes of imperialism, occupation and appropriation. Conrad was an ethnic Pole who was born at a time when Poland did not even exist on the map of Europe. He emigrated to England and worked for several years as a merchant sailor before writing one of the most celebrated works of literature in the English language.

Conrad's personal history and the themes of his writing were unexpectedly relevant to the region I was photographing. This became a key influence on my work. I began photographing in 2014, the year in which Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine, and only later did I become fully aware of how history was repeating itself in the region. That conflict continues over a decade later. 

"Oder-Neisse" was first published as a book in 2016 and exhibited at the Galerie im Tempelhof Museum, Berlin, in 2018.

Szálló Statement

Szálló means hostel or accommodation in Hungarian. The series was inspired by the serious social changes which were affecting Hungary during the nineties after the end of communist rule. Photographed at the Práter Utca and Bánya Utca shelters and various other locations in Budapest, Hungary, over six months in 1997, it was made possible with the help of the Menhely Alapítvány (Shelter Foundation). It is a series mainly of portraits with some interiors and exteriors for context, showing a group of people living rough or in sheltered accommodation at the time. There were then some 9,000 homeless in the city. Current estimates suggest the same today.

Log Book Statement

Whilst visiting the Polish city of Szczecin in early 2014 for a piece of work I was doing at the time, I wondered whether my father had flown there during the Second World War, as it was then the German city of Stettin. Between April 1943 and January 1944 he was an RAF Pathfinder pilot in Bomber Command, flying forty-eight sorties over Germany, Italy and France and a further two which were aborted for technical reasons. These flights are listed in his wartime pilot’s log book which I remembered from my childhood. On looking at it again, I saw that Stettin was the last of the entries from that period. I subsequently decided to visit all the cities to which he had flown, beginning in the spring of 2017. I continued throughout 2018, finishing in Szczecin in January 2019, aiming to make my pictures as close to the original date as possible. The intention was simply to go where my father had been, and to reflect on his experiences and on that period of European history.

Although I did extensive research at the National Archives in Kew, London, as well as through general reading, I used the material only as background information to aid my understanding and inform my choices. All the photographs were taken at night, as that is when the original flights were made. It quickly became clear to me that I should allow the particular experience of being in those places, alone and at night, to determine the nature of the work, and not try to document events or create some kind of survey. Certain images imagine the elevated perspective of the pilot, whilst others show the pedestrian's view, some even looking skyward. The resulting work is a response to being in those spaces at that time, and reflecting on a personal and common history.

I later found an image of Nürnberg from 1943 which was made by my father’s aircraft and the only aerial photograph he kept from his time in the RAF, and decided to close the work with it.

Log Book was first exhibited in the Haus am Kleistpark, Berlin in May 2020. A limited edition artist book was published in July 2020. You can find it here.

In memory of my father, Maurice R. Chick, his crew, and all those involved in and affected by the air war over Europe between 1939 and 1945.

Mike Chick.
Berlin, March 2020 (revised July 2022).