Capturing dissent: forensic photography of graffiti in the late German Democratic Republic

Abstract

Through a document analysis of archival materials, this paper explores visual landscapes of graffiti, produced by the German Democratic Republic’s Ministry for State Security (MfS) photographers in Leipzig from 1980 to 1989. Capturing visual dissent through forensic photography and its subsequent displacement from public view are two entwined territorial practices that appear to concern aesthetics yet are inherently political. Four selected photographs illustrate the main findings: First, a logic of invisibilisation as a means of deterritorialisation, and second, contradictions in MfS photo practices that highlight the contingent character of repairs to the brittle architecture of state sovereignty in the late GDR.