NYC

On an assignment in New York City, the photography capital of the world.  Will be updating regularly via the blog and social networking.

Perhaps I will look for options in staying here permanently again.  If there are any thoughts, leads, etc., please leave a comment or contact me via Twitter direct message: @drmorbid or via email: delugephoto [a] gmail.com (remove brackets and place "@" symbol to complete the address).

Related:
Skyline here 
Sang here 
October here 
Northport here 
34th Street here 
Munich Subways here 
Chinatown (Amsterdam) here 
Graun im Vinschgau, Italy here 
Point/Counterpoint (Munich) here 
Frankfurt here 
Stelvio Pass here 
Pic du Midi (France) here
Hurricane Sandy here 

Golden Hour

Colleagues Mo Hernandez and Felix Benneckenstein, Golden Hour, during a Bagida/Pegida-Munich march, in the security area.  Both engage in various types of journalism, documentation, and social projects.

Mo Hernandez
Felix Benneckenstein

Waffen SS Division Charlemagne Memorial

No usage without explicit license agreement. Please share original link.  Usage with attribution/credit, but no agreement, is still unauthorized.

Expanding the coverage of the Neonazi/far/radical right spectrum groups, myself and colleagues made a trip to Bad Reichenhall, a village on the German-Austrian border near Salzburg.

Annually, they hold a memorial for the Charlemagne division of the Waffen-SS, which consisted of French collaborators who fought for Germany.  They were executed at the conclusion of the war.

Bad Reichenhall is known to consumers of table salt, as well as being a semi-major tourist destination.  However, tourists may not be able to see what is behind the businesses and beautiful landscapes of the village- extreme conservative and far right-wing values to the point that these Waffen-SS agents have a permanent memorial in the village's cemetery and also has a relatively eyebrow-raising memorial stone at the Kretabruecke (Crete Bridge) in remembrance of the Gebirgsjaeger (mountain-specialist troops) killed while in service for the Nazis.

Many of the faces coincide with those present at Bagida marches and die Rechte demonstrations in Munich and elsewhere.  These facts make the complete lack of coverage by the media rather conspicuous.  However, as previously noted, the existence of a far/extreme/radical right in central Europe are dissonant topics, which people prefer to ignore, or lie about and claim it doesn't exist.  These factors lended themselves to the breakout of Pegida, which was there all along, but, after a point, Dresdners were no longer able to lie and keep their racist sentiments a secret.

Peter M., once again, began making a spectacle of himself and was loudly chastized by others there for his misbehavior.

The speeches ranged from revisionism regarding the end of WWII and Germany's role and surrender, then taking a radical deviation to Volkstheory by Philipp Hasselbach.  At the end, they sang "Wenn alle untreu werden", a song associated with the SS and, while not forbidden under German law, is highly controversial.  Anti-Jewish rhetoric was also present in the speeches, including the mention of "hooknoses".


Coverage by Endstation Rechts/Bayern here

Related*:
Waffen-SS Division Charlemagne Memorial here
National Socialism Documentation Center Protest here  
Alternative for Germany rally here  
Montags (the last Bagida rally before an extended pause) here  
Further Escalation here Conflict in the Old Botanical Garden (neonazi attack) here
Die Rechte II (same neonazi group as the Keup Street entry) here  
Provocation here  Keup Street Is Everywhere Keupstraße ist überall (neonazi rally) here
More Bagida here
Bagida VII here
Bagida VI here
Bagida V here
Point/Counterpoint (separately posted picture from this rally) here
Pegida Bagida (rally 4) here
Pegida Muegida here
NoPegida (record-breaking counter demonstration in Munich) here
Muenchen ist Bunt here
Kein Mensch (Dresden) Here
Muenster Keinen Meter here
July 26th, Munich here
*omitted was demonstration #3  

Memorial to the Gebirgsjaeger, who fought for Nazi-Germany

A creepy, black and red sign, just before entering the demo area in the hills.  The black/red color scheme is, while likely unintentional, highly conspicuous.

 

Dan Eising in the middle

Peter Meidl (die Rechte Rosenheim) misbehaving and making a spectacle of himself. He is under investigation for statements regarding the Holocaust.

VH on the right, also attends Bagida marches.

Memorial for the fallen Waffen-SS.

Back row, right of the pole, a frequent-attendee of Bagida marches, as well as die Rechte neonazi demos.

Blonde in the center has been spotted at die Rechte demos.

To the right, wearing glasses- frequent attendee of die Rechte rallies.

Philipp Hasselbach

 

VG, girlfriend of Hasselbach

Jan R. behind Hasselbach, often attends die Rechte demos, has been spotted often with Peter M. and while wearing forbidden Blood and Honor clothing.

Three aborted attempts at playing the trumpet.  He embarrassingly walked away, head down.

 

 

Cemetery:

Wreath and memorial placed to the left.  A death threat was made on our way in.

Permanent tablets memorializing the dead Waffen-SS agents

  

 

24mm Journalism Mo Hernandez

A colleague, Mo Hernandez, has started a photojournalism blog entitled "24mm Journalism".

Mo will regularly update his blog with political events, demonstrations, rallies, and analyses from the Munich area, as well as abroad.

The focal point, in addition to others, will be similar to some of mine, in the form of domestic unrest- the type of which is often ignored by the media for various reasons- be them political and/or financial constraints.

We're currently in an era where the media's resources are shrinking and they are unable, or unwilling, to cover many stories and initiate the journalistic process of old- following a story for an extended period of time to analyze the developments and minutia that determine outcomes.  Furthermore, some stories are simply too dissonant for the target audiences.  This is where Mo, myself, and other colleagues performing independent, investigative photojournalism fit in.