Ulrike Meinhof: Division

I had the idea to create something showing two facets of Ulrike Meinhof, the socially conscious activist and journalist she used to be and the radicalised terrorist she became. Her view of the world became increasingly polarised and marxist: there were the oppressors and the oppressed, no in between. There were those willing to act, and those who would not. I wanted to explore this idea of division and polarity, adapting it to show the division within Meinhof. It should show the contradiction between her two sides; the difference between the start and end of her 'story' as a writer turned terrorist.

I took two images, a portrait showing her when she was still a journalist, and the iconic photo of her corpse. I made the image above, showing the sharp contrast between the two sides through the harsh black and white, with the divide cutting the image in two. I thought it felt underdeveloped though, so I switched out the top image for one that I thought would work better.

I preferred this version. The images seemed to have a greater similarity which created a better parallel. However, the aspect ratio didn't seem ideal, so I played around with that as well.

I liked the version on the left best. The changes from the first iteration added a lot more symmetry to it and highlighted the contrast between the images a lot better. I think the symbolism works well; the positive and negative sides cutting the piece, and Meinhof's identity, in two. I could use the motif here of negative images, which I already used in my photograms, again in my final video.