Frauke Eigen (born 1969 in Aurich, Germany) is a German photographer, photojournalist and artist.
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Eigen studied at the Royal College of Art in London.[1]
Eigen is featured in the Imperial War Museum London's 2011-2012 Women War Artists exhibition for her 2000 photographic exhibition Fundstücke Kosovo (Kosovo Finds) about war crimes in Kosovo. Eigen's work contains images of the clothing and belongings of the victims of ethnic cleansing which she photographed during the exhumation of mass graves.[2]
The project was undertaken while Eigen was working as a photo-journalist for a government relief organisation. She heard that mass graves were being exhumed at a nearby location, so went to see them. She saw the bodies of the people who had been killed, and later on, their clothing and other belongings, which had been removed and washed. Eigen found the belongings more emotionally moving than the bodies, and decided to photograph them instead.
Kathleen Palmer, Head of Art at the Imperial War Museum, commented that "this focus upon their personal possessions brings to life the people who had been killed. Since the images themselves are not horrific and graphic, they allow the viewer to relate to the horror in a different way.... They allow us to engage with the horror more immediately." [3][4]
Eigen's photographs were later used as evidence by the War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague.[5]
Eigen recently completed a photographic project in Afghanistan.[1]