“In spring 2025, military historian Sönke Neitzel said, ‘This summer could be the last one in peace.’ For a long time, peace in Europe was taken for granted. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, at the latest, that sense of certainty has begun to fracture.
The Last Summer was created in the summer of 2025 against this backdrop. The work observes people in Berlin going about everyday leisure activities: swimming, partying, playing sports, or simply doing nothing. The political situation is not visible in the images themselves. It is precisely here that the tension lies: between a seemingly ordinary summer and the sense that what we take for granted may not last.
Another summer has passed since then, but the question remains. With each summer, it arises anew: Could this be the last summer of a time in which peace still seems something we can take for granted? Or is it simply a summer like any other?
“In spring 2025, military historian Sönke Neitzel said, ‘This summer could be the last one in peace.’ For a long time, peace in Europe was taken for granted. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, at the latest, that sense of certainty has begun to fracture.
The Last Summer was created in the summer of 2025 against this backdrop. The work observes people in Berlin going about everyday leisure activities: swimming, partying, playing sports, or simply doing nothing. The political situation is not visible in the images themselves. It is precisely here that the tension lies: between a seemingly ordinary summer and the sense that what we take for granted may not last.
Another summer has passed since then, but the question remains. With each summer, it arises anew: Could this be the last summer of a time in which peace still seems something we can take for granted? Or is it simply a summer like any other?