In Search of ‘My Beloved Pauline’

Description: In Search of ‘My Beloved Pauline’ is a photo series that explores German imperialism in West Asia before and during World War I through the lens of a vernacular photo album titled Meine Liebe Pauline, zur Erinnerung an Türkei-Kleinasien 1917/18 (My Beloved Pauline, in Memory of Turkey-Asia Minor, 1917/18). The album serves as both a personal keepsake and a historical document of German colonial and military activities in the region, bridging everyday life with histories of extraction, displacement and genocide. As part of this series, the artist combines vernacular photographs from the album with new images she captured while retracing the path of the military officer featured in the album, using its contents as a map. Through this approach the work interrogates these vernacular images, revealing collective histories and memories that have been obscured by official narratives and their actors, including the album’s amateur photographer. A portion of this project was published as a photo essay commissioned by the Vera List Center for Art and Politics (VLC) for the 2024 VLC Forum: Correct History, the digital publication can be accessed here.

Materials: Maple frames, digital photographs, archival albumen prints, video, text and khunq.

Image Description: Installation views, ‘Hande Sever: Take off your eyes’, REDCAT: The Roy and Edna Disney CalArts Theater, 2025. Photo: Yubo Dong, ofstudio.