Introduction
Julian Röder produces very sharp, astute images of engaging moments that are both politically charged and eloquently situational. Röder has focused several of his photography projects on the various critics of globalization. When protests ensue at the summit meetings of the EU and G8 country’s security zone borders, Röder sets his sights. In 2001 in Genoa, Röder and some of his friends were among the demonstrators, stealthily documenting their way through the secured city in a luggage van. His photographs are poignantly current and very topical—the tension is ever-present, not historical or reminiscent. Röder leads the viewer by the hand and throat through precarious events as a spectator and as a participant, dangerously close and hyperaware.
Among the most successful aspects of Röder’s work is the way he remains impartial to the sides he presents. He beckons you to the eye of the storm, the erupting center of the tumultuous events before you and asks you to think before you leap, or possibly just leap and see what might happen—a brisk push in an uncertain direction, a fate and political end yet to be discovered.