In Search of ‘My Beloved Pauline’

Description: In Search of ‘My Beloved Pauline’ is an ongoing photo series that explores German imperialism in West Asia before and during World War I through the lens of a vernacular photo album titled Meine Liebe Pauline, zur Erinnerung an Türkei-Kleinasien 1917/18 (My Beloved Pauline, in Memory of Turkey-Asia Minor, 1917/18). The album serves as both a personal keepsake and a historical document of German colonial and military activities in the region, bridging everyday life with monumental historical events. As part of this ongoing series, the artist combines vernacular photographs from the album with new images she captured in 2024 while retracing the path of the military officer featured in the album, using its contents as a map. Through this approach the work interrogates these vernacular images, revealing collective histories and memories that have been obscured by official narratives and their actors, including the album’s amateur photographer. A portion of this project was published as a photo essay commissioned by the Vera List Center for Art and Politics (VLC) for the 2024 VLC Forum: Correct History, the digital publication can be accessed here.

Materials: digital photographs, archival albumen prints and text.

Image Description: Publication Documentation, ‘Hande Sever: In Search of ‘My Beloved Pauline’’, Vera List Center for Art and Politics, 2024. Graphic Design: Hanna Karraby.