Pre-G20 Hamburg Documentary

Germany is the host of the G20 summit talks in 2017 and Chancellor Angela Merkel asked Hamburg’s first Mayor, Olaf Scholz, to host this event in Hamburg. Olaf Scholz agreed and assured safety to the public. He even claimed that: “On July 9th, some people will be surprised that the summit is already over.”

Hamburg is known to be an open, diverse and international city due to its large and 828 years old harbor. And because of this, Hamburg also carries the nickname "Gate to the World."

But when it comes to hosting the G20 summit in Hamburg, most people from Hamburg are opposed to having this event in their metropolitan city. While most residents support the idea that leaders of the world should talk to each other and try to effectively tackle the urgent inequity and environmental issues of our planet, the majority of residents think that this event should not have been hosted in the middle of a metropolitan, but rather in a more remote place where the implications and security concerns would have been much less trouble.

In addition to that, the event takes place in the most alternative part of town that had a long history of, let's say, not reacting well to gentrification, capitalism, and inequality of minorities. To these residents, it's seen as a blatant provocation and adds fuel to a G20 summit event that has a long history of protests and violence.

With this photo series, I documented the "under siege" area with my camera just days before the G20 summit started on July 7th & 8th. Many residents of Hamburg foresaw the riots, but the first mayor, Olaf Scholz, did not. Or at least he found that the benefits of hosting the G20 in Hamburg outweighed the potential harm.

Update: Did the misjudgment of the G20 in Hamburg hurt Olaf Scholz politically? Not really: In March 2018, Olaf Scholz was elected minister of finance and Vice-Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, next to Chancellor Angela Merkel...