Corona Rhapsody - is this real life?

Since the outbreak of the global Corona pandemic, we have often been confronted with the questions of what is actually happening around us and where the border between fantasy and reality lies. In the beginning the situation felt to us like a surreal dream.

We combine different aspects and scenarios happening during Covid-19 in Germany and show the tension between public life, the infrastructural apparatus behind it and the people who move in this space.

Corona Rhapsody is a contribution to the discussion on the question of what changes in our society will be caused by the pandemic. The work questions how the current situation is presented by the media and perceived by the public, to what extent this corresponds to subjective experiences, how the pandemic is possibly being instrumentalized for political purposes, and how we will remember the coronavirus crisis in the future.

This is a collaboration between Rafael Heygster and Helena Manhartsberger. Working as a duo allowed us to illuminate unstaged scenarios with external flashes to visualize our surreal feeling to the events.

© Rafael Heygster - soldiers on the way to an exercise at a makeshift hospital in the exhibition halls in Hannover
i

soldiers on the way to an exercise at a makeshift hospital in the exhibition halls in Hannover

© Rafael Heygster - Image from the Corona Rhapsody - is this real life? photography project
i

In Hannover Exhibition Halls, a makeshifthospital has been set up in March. Whereusually trade fairs take place in Hannover,treatment facilities were created for 500Covid-19 patients.Until today it still notnecessary to open the new builded infrastructure.

© Rafael Heygster - Image from the Corona Rhapsody - is this real life? photography project
i

Mounted policewomen disperse three young men playing football in a park. In Germany it is forbidden at the time to be in public with more than two people if you do not belong to a family living in the same household.

© Rafael Heygster - Trainee officers of the Bundeswehr practice in April in a makeshift hospital how to deal with coronapatients.
i

Trainee officers of the Bundeswehr practice in April in a makeshift hospital how to deal with coronapatients.

© Rafael Heygster - Image from the Corona Rhapsody - is this real life? photography project
i

A couple demonstrates at a „hygiene demo“ in Hanover together with right-wing extremist conspiracy believers against the measures to limit the spread of corona. Their protective masks read "muzzle".

© Rafael Heygster - Image from the Corona Rhapsody - is this real life? photography project
i

The Bremen parliament moved to the Exhibition Halls. The members of parliament sit now at individual tables with a distance of 1.5 m.

© Rafael Heygster - Image from the Corona Rhapsody - is this real life? photography project
i

In the improvised parliament in Bremen, all politicians strictly adhere to the valid distance rules in order to set a positive example for the citizens, a member of parliament tells. As soon as they leave the hall, however, many of them take the distance rules less seriously and stand closely together in groups without mouth protection.

© Rafael Heygster - Image from the Corona Rhapsody - is this real life? photography project
i

The Bundeswehr Institute for Microbiology in Munich specializes in researching and combating biological warfare agents. Research into the SARS-CoV-2 virus plays an important role in the current crisis. The first German COVID-19 case was already diagnosed by the Institute at the end of January 2020. Since then, thousands of SARS-CoV-2 suspected cases have been tested and antibody research is continuously carried out.

© Rafael Heygster - Image from the Corona Rhapsody - is this real life? photography project
i

Policewomen of the equestrian squad posefor a portrait during their patrol at the Maschseein Hanover, on the day when masks arecompulsory in Germany.

© Rafael Heygster - Image from the Corona Rhapsody - is this real life? photography project
i

In mid-June, 120 of 700 residents of a prefabricated building are infected with corona. The city bans all residents from leaving the housing complex, imposes a quarantine and puts up fences.

© Rafael Heygster - Image from the Corona Rhapsody - is this real life? photography project
i

In the stadium of the football team Borussia Mönchengladbach, cardboard mates were set up as a backdrop for ghost games. Fans can upload their own photos online, these will be printed on cardboard stands and placed in the stadium. At the time of the photo, about 21,000 soccer fans have participated.

© Rafael Heygster - Image from the Corona Rhapsody - is this real life? photography project
i

During the pandemic, not only does social inequality become more apparent, but social solidarity also becomes stronger. Women at a Black Lives Matter demonstration in Hanover. Protests are taking place in America, Australia, Asia and Europe following the killing of African-American George Floyd by white police officers. They are directed against racial profiling, police violence and racism.

© Rafael Heygster - Image from the Corona Rhapsody - is this real life? photography project
i

City councillors are waiting for the end of an interview with their Minister of the Interior, Thomas Strobel, at a press event on the administrative assistance of the German Armed Forces at a refugee accomondation in Heidelberg.

© Rafael Heygster - Image from the Corona Rhapsody - is this real life? photography project
i

One of about 400 German vaccination centres was set up in the Festhalle in Frankfurt. Before the pandemic, parties and dances were held in this hall. Due to difficulties in the delivery and distribution of the vaccine, the vaccination centres in Germany can only be put into operation in January.

© Rafael Heygster - Image from the Corona Rhapsody - is this real life? photography project
i

Candidate officers of the German Armed Forces who are studying medicine work out emergency procedures in the makeshift hospital on the Hanover exhibition grounds.

© Rafael Heygster - Diana K. works as a nurse and gets vaccinated by vaccination centre staff member Claudia C. in Zwickau.
i

Diana K. works as a nurse and gets vaccinated by vaccination centre staff member Claudia C. in Zwickau.

© Rafael Heygster - Families take a walk to the Isar (river) one day before Christmas Eve
i

Families take a walk to the Isar (river) one day before Christmas Eve

© Rafael Heygster - Image from the Corona Rhapsody - is this real life? photography project
i

Since mass events are currently prohibited, the cultural industry is developing new ways of holding events. In Hanover, car concerts with up to 1200 vehicles regularly take place on the Schützenplatz. Family Hencke attends a show of the rock band „Fury in the Slaughterhouse“. The music is transmitted by radio to the car radios.

© Rafael Heygster - Image from the Corona Rhapsody - is this real life? photography project
i

Soldier Adriana Helfen is a medical-technicallaboratory assistant at the Institute forMicrobiology of the German Armed Forcesin Munich. She wears a protective suit withwhich the soldiers in the high-security laboratoryprotect themselves in direct contact withthe corona virus during their research.

© Rafael Heygster - Image from the Corona Rhapsody - is this real life? photography project
i

Despite many warnings from the authorities, countless excursionists head for the winter regions in January. Two hikers on the peak of the Brocken, the highest mountain in the Harz, a low mountain range in Germany.

Sign up to our weekly newsletter

Stay in the loop


We will send you weekly news on contemporary photography. You can change your mind at any time. We will treat your data with respect. For more information please visit our privacy policy. By ticking here, you agree that we may process your information in accordance with them. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.