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Documentary Series

Jan Schölzel

Photographer

Jan Schölzel

The Promise

Since mankind knows about the energy inside the atom and build the first fission reactor scientist from all around the world try to tame the process that produces the suns energy. Nuclear fusion. The technology sounds too good to be true. It's supposed to be cleaner than the burning of fossile fuels, less limited than renewable energy and safer than fission.

Fusing one gram of hydrogen releases as much energy as burning 10.8 million gram of coal. To achieve this goal the European Union, Russia, USA, China and others are building "ITER". The first reactor supposed to produce ten times more energy than was needed to run it.

Technologies have made our economic growth possible. Helped to create democracy and capitalism which provided equality and wealth. Gave us the confidence that we could fly to the moon and find vaccines for pandemics. With fusion energy as an example "The Promise" shows our faith in innovations und the wish for unlimited growth in a limited world.

Jan Schölzel

Jan didn't start to become interested in photography until in the last year of school with a graduation focus on science. His fascination for science led him to photograph at a few science institutes. Understanding the functionality of what he's taking pictures of is equally important and encourages him to explain the breakthroughs to others. Apart from that he's heavily inspired by science fiction movies like Arrival, Blade Runner 2049 and Dune. He likes to create stories which capture the atmosphere of a place and does so by mixing portraits with stills and architecture. He studies photography at Fachhochschule Dortmund. While working as a freelancer on the side.