A truly powerful experience

Steemfest 3 was amazing, but the trip to Auschwitz has had a lasting impression with me over the past year. It was a very emotionally draining experience and I feel that I just scratched the surface with what I could have captured there with my camera and learn because it was just so overwhelming to go for the first time and I am planning on going again and taking my family the next time.

This post for #showcase-sunday that I am going to share this week is a combination of two posts. The first one was a group of photographs that I had put together for my Color Photography class that I was in last year.

It was my final project for that class and while most people did full color images for their "Color Photography" final project, I chose to do black and white images with very selection portions of the images in color to show emphasis to the area and at the same time, bridge the gap of time to remind people that the atrocities that happened at Auschwitz were not that long ago, even though most of the images you see of the place area in black and white.

The next post I included with this showcase was a film project that I had put together for my documentary photography class. I wanted to tell a story through my photographs about what happened there in Auschwitz. You can feel the sadness and misery that looms in the air and I wanted to try and encompass that in the video as well.

Thank you for stopping by. I hope that you appreciate this post.

Saturation of Color

Saturation is the "colorfulness of an area judged in proportion to its brightness." ^source

Saturated colors can also draw your attention to specific parts of an image.

Auschwitz has been photographed throughout time and many photographs that we see are in black and white, giving them somewhat of a timeless feel, but at the same time, making them seem like The Holocaust happened a very long time ago. By taking my black and white images and giving them color in key areas, I am hoping to bridge the gap of time and create an emotional connection with the viewer. I am also hoping to use color to tell a story and truly make these photographs worth a thousand words.

^{Photo taken by me @derangedvisions}

IN FLANDERS FIELDS
^{Poem by John McCrae}


In Flanders' fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place: and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.


We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders' fields.


Take up our quarrel with the foe;
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high,
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders' Fields.

^{Photo taken by me @derangedvisions}

This photo was taken inside of the "Death Barracks" at Birkenau. Birkenau was an extermination camp and the Death Barracks was used for isolation for women prisoners that were selected by the SS as unfit to continue work and sent to be murdered in the gas chambers. While inside the Death Barracks, these women had to await their deaths without food or water for several days at a time. Many of them died in the barracks before they were even taken to the gas chambers to be killed.

^{Photo taken by me @derangedvisions}

Zyklon B pellets, converted to lethal gas when exposed to air. They proved the quickest gassing method and were chosen as the means of mass murder at Auschwitz.


At the height of the deportations in 1943–44, an average of 6,000 Jews were gassed each day at Auschwitz.^source

^{Photo taken by me @derangedvisions}

Seeing the personal belongings of the people was a very emotional experience for me. Especially the luggage with the names written on them. To see a name associated to each of these pieces gave them a person that they had once been attached to. The rooms full of the personal belongings from those lost lives were just a fraction of the belongings of those people.

^{Photo taken by me @derangedvisions}

^{Photo taken by me @derangedvisions}

This is a hard image to think about, well, all of them are really, but to think of the context of this one especially. This room was used the last stop for men that were on there way to the Death Wall to be executed. The clothing in the photograph are the last earthly possessions that these men had on them prior to being escorted out the door to their death. The SS had them strip naked and leave their clothing because they did not want to get any bullet holes or blood on the clothes so that they could give them to other prisoners.

^{Photo taken by me @derangedvisions}

The Death Wall stood between blocks 10 and 11.

The condemned prisoners had to strip naked in block 11, on the ground floor. Any women among them disrobed in separate rooms. The women were then led into the courtyard and shot first. The condemned prisoners were led to the wall in pairs. The SS executioner walked up from behind and shot them in the back of the head with a small-caliber rifle. Designated prisoners threw the corpses onto trucks or carts that delivered them to the crematoria. ^source

The Death Wall was demolished in 1944, while Auschwitz was still in operation. The executions did not stop though. The wall has since been reconstructed and turned into a memorial for all of those that had lost their lives there.

A solemn journey

This process for me in creating these images has been a very emotional task. It is one thing to go to a place and take pictures, but when you go to a place such as this with a specific task of trying to tell a story of remembrance and try to honor the memories of all of the people, you tend to approach things differently. Then as I spent hours pouring through my images and editing them, I began to form somewhat of a bond with the images that is hard to describe.

I hope that those of you that have taken the time to read these words and view these pictures have felt something. These images are meant to honor the memory of all of the millions of people that lost their lives during The Holocaust. Love one another and embrace each other's differences.

^{The Question}

"At Auschwitz, tell me, where was God?"

^{The Answer}

"Where was man?”

- William Styron

My trip to Auschwitz will always stick with me. I have spent many hours since I have been home going through my pictures editing them for the different projects that I went to Poland for. I did go there for Steemfest as well, but one of the main parts of my trip was the visit to Auschwitz.

This video I put together was for the final project for my Documentary Photography class. I wanted to encompass the feeling of the place while also shedding light on some of the atrocities that happened there.

Thank you all for taking the time to check out my work. It is greatly appreciated.