Following Orders documents the Bundeswehr training exercise Bollwerk Bärlin. The photos are accompanied by an op-ed about the Bundeswehr and the German press.

Published in Taz and Die Zeit.

Most news articles I’ve read about Bollwerk Bärlin start in the same way: it’s 1 am, it’s cold and raining, and beneath the quiet streets of Berlin, soldiers storm an underground station after unnamed saboteurs attacked a train carriage. The accompanying photographs show soldiers in camouflage descending U-Bahn staircases, scanning with their assault rifles and looking badass. They’re shot from low angles, the cameras placed on the floor, aiming upward so the soldiers tower heroically above. The press photos convey a unified message: the Bundeswehr is cool.

What I find interesting about Bollwerk Bärlin and its coverage is not what’s shown, but what’s noticeably missing. The presence of the media (around 40 people) was the most obvious and weird characteristic of this whole event. We weren’t just observing the performance; we were part of it. Yet I’ve not found any articles that question why the press was invited in the first place: the spectacle itself hasn’t been critiqued, let alone acknowledged. And this concerns me - perhaps it should concern you too - because such reporting blurs the line between journalism and PR. Call me idealistic, but isn’t the role of the media to ask questions?

I expected to observe a training scenario from the sidelines. Instead, what unfolded was a PR event with spectacle at its forefront, more akin to a theatre performance than military training. The homogeneous news coverage I’ve since found highlights how effectively the Bundeswehr utilised the media in this instance to promote its messaging.

So, why were we there? To me, it’s clear the press was invited so we would flood the news cycle with images and messages about the military at a time when the Bundeswehr is desperately seeking to boost its numbers. The country is one or two steps away from returning to conscription, depending on how the current initiative (encouraging voluntary recruitment) unfolds over the coming months. The government is poised to implement conscription if too few young people enlist in the army, and with a nationwide school strike against conscription planned for December 5th, many clearly are not in favour. So, given the circumstances, what better way to get the topic of military service into conversation around the dinner table than by enticing news outlets to publish their own independent press photos of soldiers looking like they’re in an action movie?

I’m not surprised that the Bundeswehr would organise an event such as this with media representatives present. What surprises me, however, is how uniformly the German press took the bait and shared the message. I observed photographers that night jostling for positions in the first row of about 20 others, all waiting patiently for the initial soldiers to descend the stairway at U-Jungfernheide and capture the epic ‘hero’ shots together. I’m often confused (admittedly, a little entertained) by the same swarming strategy used by press photographers, who appear to battle one another for ‘the same’ photo and, in doing so, create a kind of analogous media aesthetic with their combined documentation. In the case of this exercise, the result has been that the majority of the published press photos not only look very similar but also promote the Bundeswehr: soldiers pointing weapons at the camera, soldiers rescuing people, soldiers looking awesome.

When approached from a more critical angle, Bollwerk Bärlin could present journalists, photographers, writers, etc., with an opportunity to report on the proximity of the press to government messaging and, correspondingly, to discuss the mechanisms embedded in the media that encourage such proximity. For example, even as a newbie to photojournalism, I already feel the incentive (capitalist speak for pressure) to capture the kinds of photos that newspapers select for publishing. That’s because I only earn money when a news company buys and publishes my photos. Therefore, it only makes sense, financially, that I study the trends, identify the types of images chosen by editors, and copy the aesthetics. Combine this practice with the dismally low pay press photographers receive for their work, and all of a sudden, the photographer swarm makes a lot more sense, doesn’t it? It’s not about shooting the same photo or even the best photo, but shooting the photo most likely to be published.

More often than not, it’s the larger infrastructure of the press - the micro-mechanisms between editors, writers, photographers, etc. - that defines the kinds of photos we see in the news and in newspapers, not photographers themselves. Yet, events like Bollwerk Bärlin need to be reported on more critically, with a broader view and greater transparency about the intentions of the organiser (the Bundeswehr, in this case) rather than simply following orders. Without such a critique, it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish genuine critical journalism from military marketing. And therein lies danger.