The Fallen
The Wahner Heide
How can we imagine the dark burden of a place this beautiful?
The Wahner Heide near Cologne, Germany, is a large, species-rich nature reserve with a 200-year military history. The place has seen it all: the Prussian Army, chemical weapon training, a prisoner-of-war camp and the secret storing of nuclear weapons.
Today, most of the vast natural area is open to the public and attracts hikers, families and dog lovers alike. Many of them know about the historical facts but find them too abstract to really comprehend the past.
With the series “The Fallen”, I aim to present an alternative view of this unique place, creatively retracing the bleak history of the Wahner Heide and reviving the ghosts of the fallen.
The photos blend the present with the past, showing how intrinsically intertwined they are.
This allows us to see – and maybe even feel – what happened here in the past and what is hidden beneath today’s beauty.
This project avoids AI-generated imagery, focusing instead on authenticity. I extensively researched public photo archives to source historic war photographs and integrated the ghosts/soldiers using photo editing tools. The result is a haunting interplay of memory and presence, connecting past and present.
Cas Bochner, 2023
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