Erfurt (dpa/th) – A photo project by the photographer Herlinde Koelbl can be seen in Erfurt’s main train station until next Thursday. The 82-year-old, known, for example, for her long-term studies with Angela Merkel, portrayed people with mental illnesses for the series accompanying the exhibition “View on Mental Illnesses”. At the same time, she also took photos of unaffected caregivers and medical staff.
The large-format portraits were first seen in September at Berlin Central Station. From Frankfurt am Main they came to Erfurt (October 19-27). From here they will move on to Nuremberg (October 30th – November 9th) and Dresden (November 12th – 21st) and be shown there. According to its CEO Richard Lutz, Deutsche Bahn wants to use the exhibition to draw attention to the fact that mental illness can affect anyone. In Germany, every fourth adult is affected once in his life.
“One runs into the optical trap,” said Koelbl in Berlin at the opening of the first station of the traveling exhibition. The diseases cannot be seen in the 16 portrayed. Only the accompanying texts, for which Koelbl conducted interviews after the photographs were taken, provide information about the illnesses of eight of those portrayed.
