“A political family photo album.”
— one of the project participants
“I find your project fascinating — especially because putting up campaign posters, not just my own, still feels very special to me. It’s not only that you quite literally ‘show your face,’ but that it’s such a direct, hands-on expression of democracy.”
— one of the project participants
The series versos, #1 (part of a wider project versos) features individuals — primarily politicians — hanging their own campaign posters. However, the actual printed face of the poster remains unseen, exposing only its clean, white backside. Iconographically, white represents purity, innocence, and intellectual clarity. During any election cycle, there is an inherent promise to rethink politics, to find novel solutions for existing problems, and to attract supporters in new, efficient ways.
The face of the person making these promises plays a pivotal role. Campaign posters rely heavily on the portrait of the politician, designed for immediate recognition to instill trust in both the individual and the party. Alternatively, they depict the politician interacting with the public, often accompanied by brief text that highlights the universal nature of the message.
versos, #1 aims to interlink these communicative levels without relying on the visual tautology of the printed poster. Instead, a single image recursively overlaps three distinct dimensions: the physical presence of the natural person, the performative action through which their political image is constructed, and the election poster itself, reduced here to a form without content.
The purpose of the wider versos project is not to propagate any specific political party or philosophy, but rather to reflect on the mechanics of political image-making. A single frame simultaneously captures the portrait of the natural person (as distinct from their legal identity as a politician), their societal position, and the emptied medium through which this position communicates with society.
The project’s title merges the Latin versus ("turned, reversed"), often used as a synonym for "against" or "opposite," with its variation verso, which refers to the blank backside of a sheet of paper, papyrus, parchment, or a banknote.
versos, #1 marks the first edition of this project, initiated during the 2024 elections for the 8th Brandenburg State Parliament. Intended as an ongoing series, future iterations will continue to document different political elections and campaigns across Europe.
For a detailed description of the project methodology, please scroll down.
❏ Download a PDF with a German translation
