Stare at These Photos and You Might Spot a Killer

If you’ve ever played Call of Duty online, you’ll know that snipers are very sneaky bastards. But that’s kind of the point. They hide in the distance, camouflaged into their surroundings, and pick you off before you’ve even realised they’re there. IRL, these highly trained marksmen are capable of surviving alone in the wilderness for weeks on end. They dig little holes – or “nests”, as they call them – and hang out in there for a bit, before popping up and putting a bullet through someone’s skull from over two kilometres away.    

Artist Simon Menner was granted permission to spend some time with the German army and their snipers. During the two occasions he visited, he captured the soldiers’ remarkable ability to blend into their environment, producing images that appear to be simple landscape shots until you look close enough to spot the barrel of a gun. 

This is a common theme in Menner’s work, which often focuses on information and the ways in which it can be restricted and revealed. Other similar works include minefields in Bosnia, and the more recent book Top Secret (Hatje Cantz, 2013), an extraordinary collection of both ridiculous and shocking images from the Stasi archives.   

Have a look through the images and try to find the snipers. There are tips to help you out.

Tip: Look above the brownish rotten wood. Slightly to the right.

Tip: Look to the right of the small path. Slightly uphill inside the bushes.

Tip: Look on top of the two big boulders in the lower right corner. The muzzle is visible.

Tip: Look to the right, behind the big boulder.

Tip: Behind the grass and below the small trees in the foreground.

Tip: There is a bigger boulder in the lower left corner. Sniper is straight up from there, where the colour of the stones changes from light to dark.

Tip: Look under the moss cover. Behind a small tree with a bent trunk

Tip: Look under the twigs and branches on the left.

Tip: Look under the left side of the birch tree.

Tip: Behind the piece of wood on the ground, just next to the second tree to the right side in the centre of the image.