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A photographic look at the reconstruction of a region after an environmental disaster
“A camera can reveal secrets that the naked eye or the mind can grasp. 

Everything vanishes, only what the lens points to remains.

Photography is an exercise in observation.” (Isabel Allende)

After the horrors, after the catastrophic events that hit the AHR valley with damage to buildings and landscape, in many villages the long process of rebuilding the destroyed houses and the basic structure of the villages has begun, as well as the redefinition of community life in the valley.
After the flood and a two-year pandemic, people were faced with existential questions.
Thanks to government funding for the safety and reconstruction of buildings, many problems could be solved.
However, all obstacles had to be overcome in a slow and time-consuming cycle of reorganization.
The shadows of the past still often confront the present in ruined places and call for a profound examination of sociological, political and economic issues. (Marc Augé, Ruins and Rubble. The Sense of Time, 2004).

The interpretation of the ruins themselves allows the spectator to activate reconstruction processes:
The students' works addressed the topic of reconstruction through visual perception with the help of photography.
Purely visual investigations translate into a basic dynamic set of observation tools with which it is possible to read the territory in depth through the continuous "discovery of traces". This process of reflection activates an ethical reconstruction
fondata, rispettosa della storia, delle memorie e dell’espressione architettonica.
Another phase of the seminar was dedicated to the historical and architectural study of the city of Aachen and the AHR valley.
This was followed by an examination of the work of international photographers who explored the themes of the city, architecture and landscape.
Finally, the workshop focused on the project of pictorial representation of traces, traces and trace research, carried out by the architecture students.
All participants took a very individual approach to the selection and processing of photographic material.

The result was an exhibition, a multimedia product and an issue of the architecture magazine “Traces” entitled “Traces, AHR”.