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Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe

Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe, portraits of German military conscripts at Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe train station, commissioned for Hapax Magazine Issue 7

An open book displaying a panoramic black and white photograph of a modernist building complex spread across both pages, showing curved and angular architectural elements with a circular window and geometric forms, captured from a low angle against a clear sky.
An open book displaying a black and white photograph on the right page showing rock formations or natural stone structures with textured surfaces and organic shapes, creating a contrast between natural geological forms and the clean presentation of the book format.
An open book spread showing two contrasting black and white images: on the left, a stark architectural photograph of a modernist building with repetitive linear elements and geometric patterns; on the right, a classical or allegorical illustration featuring figures in flowing robes with text that appears to be in German.
An open book spread featuring a striking black and white image of dark elliptical or oval shapes that appear to be pools, shadows, or excavated areas in a light-colored ground or surface, creating a dramatic contrast and suggesting themes of absence or void within the landscape.
An open book spread showing two contrasting black and white photographs: on the left, a minimalist architectural installation with concrete or stone blocks arranged in a sparse configuration; on the right, rows of theater or auditorium seating extending upward in repetitive patterns, creating a sense of mass gathering and collective space.
An open book spread featuring two contrasting images: on the left, a wall with a dramatic crack running vertically through the surface with debris at its base, suggesting structural failure or decay; on the right, a weathered gravestone or memorial plaque with ornate Germanic text and decorative elements, representing themes of memory and deterioration.
An open book spread showing two urban decay photographs: on the left, a corner space with graffiti-covered walls and debris scattered on the floor, representing abandonment and urban neglect; on the right, a chain-link fence with shadows cast across it, suggesting barriers and restriction in urban environments.
An open book with a blank left page and a right page featuring a black and white photograph of modern architectural elements showing geometric roof lines, angular walls, and strong shadows creating stark contrasts and emphasizing the building's brutalist or contemporary design.
An open book with a blank left page and a right page showing a black and white photograph of fallen or displaced stone slabs lying among tall grass and vegetation at the base of a tree, suggesting themes of abandonment, decay, or the relationship between constructed and natural elements.
An open book showing a black and white photograph of a modernist architectural structure with geometric forms - including what appears to be a cylindrical tower and rectangular buildings - set against a dark landscape with vegetation and natural terrain in the foreground.
An open book displaying a black and white photograph spread across both pages showing an expansive textured landscape or surface with repetitive patterns resembling soil, earth, or agricultural terrain viewed from above, creating an abstract topographical composition.
An open book displaying a panoramic black and white landscape photograph spread across both pages showing rolling hills, agricultural fields divided by hedgerows and boundaries, creating a patchwork pattern of cultivated land that extends to the horizon, illustrating the human transformation of natural terrain.
An open book spread featuring two contrasting architectural photographs: on the left, a view through a rocky cave or tunnel opening revealing a mountainous landscape beyond, representing natural framing; on the right, a modernist building with circular windows and geometric forms, with a triangular shadow cast against its facade.
An open book displaying a panoramic black and white landscape photograph spread across both pages featuring a solitary bare tree in the center of rolling agricultural fields, with scattered buildings and settlements visible in the distance, creating a composition that emphasizes the relationship between human habitation and natural landscape.
An open book spread showing a black and white landscape photograph across both pages with a dramatic tree shadow cast across grassy fields, creating strong contrast between light and dark areas and emphasizing the sculptural quality of shadows on the land surface.
An open book spread with a black and white photograph on the left showing a rustic wooden door or gate set into a stone wall with natural vegetation; on the right, a dark page with white text featuring a quote from Friedrich Schiller's Wilhelm Tell about soil and labor, connecting the themes of land, work, and human transformation of nature.
A black and white photograph showing a rectangular sculptural installation or model with geometric architectural elements, including stepped structures and linear forms casting dramatic shadows, placed on what appears to be a concrete or stone surface with a circular detail visible in the composition.
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This Soil We Have Created For Ourselves

This Soil We Have Created For Ourselves, published by Kominek Books in 2021

“This Soil is an investigation of sites of memory and yet its strength lies in not relying on a linear re-telling of events. It invites us to sense the significance of what we see before us and in doing so, attempts to strike a difficult balance between bringing attention to Germany’s dark past, while also refusing to give it honour or pay homage.”
“Feige's book is a reminder that reminders are not history. They are propositions that wrangle us back from the complacency of believing that we understand history when it emerges like another dirty phoenix with a yearning for absolutes when we expect it least but subconsciously desire it the most.”

Soft cover, thread stitching
76 Pages, 44 B/W Photographs
Tritone printing
21.6 x 29.3 cm

Editing by Jonas Feige and Misha Kominek
Design by Jonas Feige, Krispin Heé & Tim Wetter

Book spread with black and white photographs showing hands sketching on left and abstract textural surface with flowing lines on right
Book spread featuring black and white photograph of a silhouetted figure behind translucent material or glass, creating an atmospheric shadow effect
Book spread featuring collaged black and white photographs of textural surfaces and abstract forms with vertical line patterns
Book spread with black and white photograph of construction scaffolding and angular wooden framework against sky
Book spread featuring black and white architectural photograph from the Narrow Foothold art project
Book spread with black and white photograph of architectural detail showing textural concrete or stone surface with dramatic shadows
Book spread featuring black and white photograph of weathered building corner with stained walls and architectural details
Book spread featuring black and white photograph of archaeological excavation site showing layered earth and stone formations
Book spread with black and white aerial photograph showing architectural foundations and geometric patterns in landscape
Book spread featuring black and white photograph of chain-link fence with tangled branches creating abstract patterns
Book spread with black and white photograph of metal bicycle racks against concrete wall with urban pigeons nearby
Book spread with black and white urban architecture photograph showing concrete structures and buildings in brutalist style
Book spread featuring poetic text fragments on black pages with white typography about strategic embellishment and configurations of life
Book spread with black and white photograph showing geometric architectural forms and small vegetation growing between structures
Book spread featuring two black and white photographs - close-up of draped fabric on left and storefront with metal shutters on right
Book spread featuring black and white photograph of brick wall with weathered stains and graffiti markings
Book spread featuring black and white photograph of architectural structural elements and bridge supports from below
Book spread with black and white photograph showing abstract concrete surfaces with intersecting linear elements
Book spread with black and white urban photography from the Narrow Foothold art project
Book spread featuring monochromatic artistic photograph from the Narrow Foothold documentation
Book spread with black and white contemporary art photograph from the Narrow Foothold series
Book spread featuring artistic black and white photograph from the Narrow Foothold visual documentation
Book spread with black and white photographic artwork from the Narrow Foothold series
Black cover of
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A Narrow Foothold

A Narrow Foothold, with Alan Huck, published by Another Earth in 2024

German philosopher Walter Benjamin’s monumental work the Arcades Project—which remained unfinished at the time of his death in 1940—represents both a treatise on the labyrinthine nature of the modern city and the realization of his dream of a book without authorship, composed almost entirely of quotations drawn from a wide range of sources. Taking their mutual appreciation for these aspects of Benjamin’s work as their starting point, friends and photographers Jonas Feige (Germany) and Alan Huck (United States) sorted through their archives of orphaned images in order to assemble a collective portrait of an anonymous city—one composed of severe geometric forms, vague symbols, and the spectral traces of a human presence. Intentionally trying to dissolve any sense of individual authorship, the two looked to Benjamin as their methodological guide, reminding them that “an enigma is a fragment that, together with another, matching fragment, makes up a whole.”

56 pages
30 photographs
7.25 x 8.75 inches
Swiss-bound hard cover 
First Edition of 100 copies

Edited by Jonas Feige, Alan Huck, and Cristian Ordóñez
Designed by Cristian Ordóñez
Published by Another Earth

The initial run of 100 copies has sold out, but the artists and publisher have published a standalone website for the project with extended material and a free PDF of the book:

A Narrow Foothold Website

Open book spread showing dense tropical forest scenes - left page displays tall palm trees and lush vegetation, right page shows a person in white shirt and jeans climbing or working on a tree trunk in a forest setting
Open book spread showing German text under the heading
Open book spread showing interior spaces - left page features a framed portrait on a wall with electrical wiring and cables, right page shows a weathered wooden building structure with metal roofing and wooden support beams
Open book spread with English text on the left page and a photograph on the right showing an interior view of a rustic building with wooden beams, rough walls, and natural lighting filtering through openings
Open book spread with German text under
Open book spread featuring tropical scenes - left page shows palm trees and vegetation silhouetted against a golden sunset sky, right page displays a close-up of a large tree trunk with distinctive bark patterns and markings
Open book spread with historical black and white photographs on the left page showing
Open book spread featuring historical black and white photographs on the left page showing river scenes with people and boats, alongside a contemporary color photograph on the right showing silhouetted figures in a wooden canoe on calm water
Open book spread showing historical photographs on the left page of
Open book spread featuring a portrait - left page shows a framed oval photograph of a Black man in formal attire mounted on a colorful painted wall, right page shows a woman in a blue checkered shirt standing against a concrete wall
Open book spread showing a bedroom interior with white walls, wooden shuttered windows, two single beds with different colored bedspreads (one olive green, one with colorful pattern), wooden furniture, and colorful posters or artwork on the walls
Open book spread showing architectural elements - left page displays a covered walkway or corridor with arched openings and strong light streaming through, right page features a portrait of Augustine Zenker, a woman with braided hair wearing a black top outdoors
Open book spread featuring a portrait and text about Georg August Zenker
Open book spread showing museum specimen data - left page displays detailed tabular records from Natural History Museum Berlin for mammals, right page features a photograph of a preserved specimen jar with handwritten German labels
Open book spread displaying museum specimens and data - left page shows detailed tabular records from Ethnological Museum Berlin, right page features a photograph of a collection display case containing multiple specimen trays with preserved animal samples
Open book spread showing ornithological specimens from Natural History Museum Berlin - left page displays a detailed scientific illustration of a brown bird with a long tail perched on a branch, right page shows a photograph of green bird specimens with identification tags arranged in a collection tray
Open book spread featuring natural history illustrations - left page shows a colorful scientific illustration of two birds perched on a branch with green leaves, right page displays a close-up photograph of reddish-brown animal fur or feathers showing detailed texture and natural coloring
Book cover featuring
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Zenker

Zenker, with Yana Wernicke, published by Edition Patrick Frey in 2021

In 1889, Georg August Zenker, a gardener and botanist from Leipzig, took charge of the Jaunde (present-day Yaoundé) research station in the German colony of Kamerun. After six years’ tenure, Zenker was summarily relieved of his duties. He was said to be leading a polygamous life at the station with several African women, some of whom had borne him children. Zenker left the country, only to return soon afterwards as a private citizen. He settled with his family (a woman from Dahomé and five children) in Bipindi, deep in the Kamerun jungle, where he built Bipindihof, a German colonial-style house and vast cocoa, rubber and banana plantations. The mainstay of his livelihood, however, consisted in collecting copious botanical and zoological specimens as well as ethnographic objects for German museums. Zenker’s thought and actions were, to be sure, heavily influenced by the colonial mindset. But on a number of occasions he clearly opposed the colonialist and militaristic practices of his superiors and other German countrymen. He died in 1922 and was buried on the grounds of his Bipindihof. Zenker’s descendants live widely dispersed in Cameroon and Europe today, but most of them still regard the now crumbling Bipindihof as the cradle of the family. Yana Wernicke and Jonas Feige traveled to the present-day Republic of Cameroon several times for this photographic essay in order to retrace Zenker’s life there and portray his descendants. By bringing together recovered letters, photographs, drawings and paintings as well as interviews with Zenker’s descendants, they form a portrait of Georg August Zenker that emphasizes the complexity of his character and the complicated legacy he left behind.

Hardcover
268 pages
164 color images
26.6 × 18.5 cm
Design by Studio Krispin Heé