Meinrad Schade (born 1968) has been working for over ten years on a long-term project entitled “Before, alongside and after the war”. He has travelled parts of today’s Russia and of the states of the former Soviet Union, such as the republics of Chechnya and Ingushetia, Kazakhstan, Nagorno- Karabakh and the Ukraine, with the aim of engaging with former, still smouldering and perhaps re- erupting conflicts through detailed reportages. Compassionate, yet incorruptible and precise, Schade seeks out the traces of war in cities, villages and in nature, alludes to mental and physical damage done to the people affected, and observes those who emerged unscathed and are proud of their past victories. Meinrad Schade provides disturbing images of an existentially unstable state between catastrophe and normality, war and peace, whereby the former Soviet Union is not his only concern. Rather he attempts to explore connections and depict human fates, which are the same everywhere, be it in Eastern Europe or in Israel and Palestine, where Meinrad Schade is currently continuing his project.