Process...

The death of Peter Fechter

These images are from a narrative composed around the story of Peter Fechter.

On Aug 17th 1962, Peter, an 18 year old bricklayer, was shot by German border guards attempting to cross the berlin wall from east to west berlin. He was shot in 'no mans land', and lay there unable to move while crowds gathered watching as he bled; and because no one was allowed to go and help him, thats where died. He died in front of a crowd, on national television...

I decided to relay the story through my own narrative, parallel to peters ordeal in terms theme and emotion, yet different in content.

Within my narrative i wanted to highlight the themes within his story, that of fear, and captivity... The feelings he would have felt both before, and during his ordeal, how regardless of how big east berlin was, with knowledge he could not leave it was as if chained to a wall...

Here i used a combination of drawn imagery, photography, projections, and paintings.

See what you think..

1st image. Start of the race, the fear, the adrenaline...

2nd image. Running, stricken with fear, hope of success...

3rd image. Crowd watching, unable to interact in anyway, powerless...

Final image. Moment where all hope is lost, where he realise's he cannot escape...

1st Post!

Well hi world, welcome to Ben Brooks Illustration!

Currently i'm in my 2nd year studying illustration at the Arts University College Bournemouth, which i'm really enjoying. Here i'll be showing experiments, ideas, finals, failures, developing works...anything i want really. Have a look and see what you think...