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Hans Jakob Väär

  • Faculty of Fine Arts
  • Photography
  • BA
  • Conscription
  • Tutor: Reimo Võsa-Tangsoo
  • Photography
  • Pigment ink print, 6 photos 550 x 700 mm Photo book, pigment ink print, 36 pages 260 x 270 mm (closed)

Work focuses on change in people who live by very strict rules. Estonian Defense Force conscription is a good environment to examine that change in people. Everything from which pocket to use for the notebook to command radio protocols are regulated by rules. Any self-will is minimal or nonexistent and allowed in specific places. Every moment of the day is pre-planned to get the most out of training and free time is next to nothing.

Some people do whatever they can not do their conscription, some people are neutral about it and others take it as a chance to grow as a person.That time can sometimes change a person a lot, based on my own 11-month conscription.
Can an observer from the outside see the change or do they have to be a part of the experience to understand it?

The work is made out of two parts: portraits of three individuals days before going to military and after and a photobook with their thoughts about the rules they lived by.

Before
After
Before
After
Before
After