Encyclopedia of Potential Truth. Elias Holzknecht’s thesis examines historical narratives and their construction.
The two brothers Heinz and Lutz Heck wanted to breed back the already extinct "aurochs". Before and during the Second World War, the breeding program took place. Cave paintings have served the two brothers as a template. Hermann Göring supported the project and wanted to "resurrect" the "aurochs" and release it into the wild to hunt it later. The Second World War survived 39 animals. Photo: Elias Holzknecht
The caves of Lascaux were discovered by the dog Robot in September 1940. In 1964 the caves were closed. Since then, four replicas have been built. Photo: Elias Holzknecht
A birdwatcher from the Netherlands is on the lookout for rare birds.
Werner Heisenberg had the idea of wave-particle duality on the island of Helgoland. These thoughts were an important part for the development of quantum physics. Photo: Elias Holzknecht
Encyclopedia of Potential Truth” is about the world. About the skin of elephants, cave paintings, the hilly landscape of Helgoland, a bombed monastery in Italy, about the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, the murder that ushered in the 21st century and the observational tools of quantum physics. Elias Holzknecht’s book project is a photographic exploration of history(s) and its narrative construction. It is an attempt to think in and with images, because with the medium of photography truth-producing processes are illuminated and reflected – historical as well as contemporary.
Elias Holzknecht (1993) grew up in Tyrol and currently lives in Graz, Austria. Since 2017 he has been studying “Photojournalism and Documentary Photography” in Hanover – in 2020/21 he spent two semesters abroad at the KASK in Ghent, Belgium. He is a founding member of the Fotograf:innen community “What’s left of Photography”.
