Rafael Heygster

Photographer

Biography 

Rafael Heygster (b. 1990) is a freelance photographer based in Hannover, Germany whose work focu­ses on the relationship between individuals and their social, cultural and ecological environment.

From 2010 to 2015 he stu­died cultural anthropology and political sciences at the Uni­ver­sity of Hamburg. Since 2015, he has studied photojournalism and documentary photography at the Hannover Uni­ver­sity of App­lied Sci­en­ces and Arts and at DMJX in Aarhus, Denmark.

Photos: Democracy Dies in Darkness

Germany’s nationalist, anti-immigrant Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), which styles itself as the “party of the little people”, made major gains in 2024, and achieved 20.8% of the vote in the 2025 national elections. In 2024, the photographer attended AfD rallies to examine and question the way the far-right party presents itself. Far-right and populist political groups across Europe are proving adept at using new media to spread their ideologies. Opponents accuse them of amplifying misinformation, spreading division and hatred, and endangering democracy.