A spectre is haunting Europe â?? the spectre of Islamization. In November 2009, Switzerland integrated a ban on minarets into its constitution. In the debate on Islam that is partly populist, liberal traditions of Western democracies are not considered and religious symbols like minarets and burkas are interpreted as symbols of power. The present photo essay, created in June 2009 in Basel, wants to show that tolerance vis-Ã -vis and integration of people of different faith, might it be in Europe or in the Arab world, is a commitment. The six staged photographs (whereof four build two pairs of images) confront the viewer with the possibilities of how mutual acceptance could look like â?? in contrast to the images of fear, they focus not on the separating, but on the commonalities. Thatâ??s the only way of abolishing unjust fear.
Lucian Hunziker was born in Basel (Switzerland) in 1981. After his studies in History, Lucian decided to devote himself completely to his passion: photography. Besides creating his own portrait series and reportages, he also worked as an assistant for well-known photographers in Paris and Zurich. He likes to travel, plays tennis and the oboe, reads Sibylle Berg and is a fan of Karl Lagerfeld. Lucian draws inspiration from art by Edward Steichen, Guy Bourdin, J.-B. Mondino, Annie Leibovitz, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Tim Walker. He lives and works in Basel and Zurich.
