For several days in early July 2017, the sky over Hamburg swarmed with dozens of helicopters. They ferried guests of state to the G20 summit and kept an eye on the city’s residents and the protesters. And they made any normal conversation impossible: the noise was monstrous. All day and all night, the deployment of these aircraft was above all a demonstration of violent power, the act of an all-controlling state seeking to cow those below—in short, an obnoxious sight and an ear-shattering form of intimidation.

Volker Renner turned the surveillance around, aiming his camera at the summer sky to record the different types of helicopter and localize their booming appearances.

For the ill-fated summit’s anniversary, he has created a series of 20 postcards that come resting on two packs of Ohropax earplugs. The date, time, helicopter type, and GPS data are listed on the back. - Textem Verlag