For his work “Deponie”, Tobias Kruse set out in search of traces from a time that continues to cast its shadow on the present: the years following reunification in East Germany. It was a turbulent period—full of opportunity for some, yet marked by disappointment, anger, and bitterness for many. Thirty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the photographer and native of Mecklenburg travelled 8,000 kilometres across East Germany. He passed through deserted landscapes and small towns, packed football stadiums and nighttime demonstrations.

Perhaps it’s not only the scar on his shaved head that dates back to this era, but also a lasting mistrust of state institutions, and the diffuse anger that still pulses in the temples of many. The insecurity and sense of lost control resonate in the echo chambers of the New Right. These black-and-white photographs form a bridge between past and present, offering a sense of how deep these wounds still run.

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Tobias Kruse was born in 1979 in Waren an der Müritz and grew up in Schwerin. He studied photography at the Ostkreuz School of Photography in Berlin, where he was a student of Professor Ute Mahler and later attended the masterclass of Professor Arno Fischer. Since 2011, he has been a member of the Ostkreuz Agency. Kruse works internationally on both personal projects and assignments for media outlets and institutions. His photographs have been published in books by Hatje Cantz, Hartmann Books, Kerber, Spector Books, and Steidl. He lives and works in Berlin.