BERLIN.- In his photographic oeuvre, artist Hannes Jung examines how individual and social traumas continue to affect people. Among other things, he is interested in the corporeal and emotional traces that violence can leave behind and how such experiences inscribe themselves into individual and collective self-understan-dings. For many years, he has been driven by the question of the effects of war on society. In subtle black-and-white photographs, Jung combines documentary research with a poetically dense visual language that relates what is visible to what can barely be spoken of.

The exhibition Men don’t cry presents works created between 2017 and 2024 in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In his artistic exploration, Jung focuses on a subject that has long been taboo: sexualized violence against men. During the Bosnian War from 1992 to 1995, not only women but also men of various nationalities were tortured, abused, and forced to commit acts of violence against each other in camps and prisons. According to estimates, between 20,000 and 50,000 women and men were victims of sexualized violence during the war. While the crimes against women have been increasingly documented and, in some cases, recognized, male victims have remained largely invisible. To this day, social expectations, shame, and a lack of public debate make it difficult for them to speak out about their experiences.

Yet traumatic experiences can rarely be photographed directly after such a long time; in most cases, they elude immediate representation. Neither people nor places openly reveal what they have experienced. It is for this reason that Jung refrains from using explicit representations and instead develops a visual lan-guage that operates via visual metaphors. He searches for a way to make traces visible without depicting them directly.

In thoughtful portraits, Jung encounters men who agreed to share their stories. The photographer shows them in their usual surroundings, focused yet relaxed—and thus present, but also trapped in the past. Many motifs seem ordinary or mundane: a farmer among his cows, a white shirt, curtains in front of a window, trees in the mist, a turbulent body of water. In addition to a formal calm and demonstrative normality, the compositions testify to a subliminal sense of unease. What is more, a silvery tonality gives the images an atmosphere of melancholy and latent tension.

Together, the photographs and a selection of quotes from the men’s reports form a multilayered visual constellation. People, places, and objects become carriers of memory, repression, loss, and survival. The photographs not only sug-gest emotional states such as silence, powerlessness, and shame, but also refer to the strength and perseverance in continuing to live.

Men don’t cry explores conventional notions of masculinity, questioning them without codifying the experiences he was told. The images allow masculinity, vulnerability, irritation, and hope to coexist in order to draw attention to what remains.

Hannes Jung (*1986) studied photography in Munich, Valencia, and Hannover. He has been working as a freelance photographer and examining social and political themes since 2009. In his artistic work and personal projects, Jung shifts between documentation and subjective interpretation, reality and sym-bolism, memory and identity. Jung’s works have been on display in numerous exhibitions and publications. He has received scholarships, project grants, and prizes, including the Lotto Brandenburg Art Prize for Photography in 2025.