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Author Topic: Something different for me  (Read 3625 times)

cjogo

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Something different for me
« on: March 22, 2013, 01:55:27 am »

WELL :: One thing its not square ...  1989 trip ...

All alone for several hours --- couldn't really take much more here ...
« Last Edit: March 22, 2013, 03:30:38 am by cjogo »
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Chris Calohan

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Re: Something different for me
« Reply #1 on: March 22, 2013, 09:29:15 am »

The problem I have with this image is it could be any building. That you had to name it ascerbates the issue. In that it could be any building, and though as Auschwitz, the structure is too far away to have significant meaning or impact. Even named, I get no chills, or feelings of disgust because of this distancing.
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cjogo

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Re: Something different for me
« Reply #2 on: March 22, 2013, 12:56:51 pm »

The problem I have with this image is it could be any building. That you had to name it ascerbates the issue. In that it could be any building, and though as Auschwitz, the structure is too far away to have significant meaning or impact. Even named, I get no chills, or feelings of disgust because of this distancing.
Guess I have a habit of naming every image - so I can find it in the database ..... The silent-towering  stacks were more chilling than most the shots I took here.. tried to convey the mass space this entailed.
« Last Edit: March 22, 2013, 01:29:46 pm by cjogo »
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louoates

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Re: Something different for me
« Reply #3 on: March 22, 2013, 01:15:54 pm »

Very difficult to convey an ominous emotion with a "happy" sky.
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amolitor

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Re: Something different for me
« Reply #4 on: March 22, 2013, 01:28:47 pm »

As a photo it's pretty much eh.

As a, um, multimedia piece (photo and text, i.e. a titled photo) it strikes me as an interesting juxtaposition. Such a happy looking photo, it could be a horse ranch in Kentucky or something. And such an unhappy title.

The interaction of titles with images is an interesting one. As purists, we'd love to tell the story without the title. As artists, maybe we should be open to whatever works?
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cjogo

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Re: Something different for me
« Reply #5 on: March 22, 2013, 02:11:13 pm »

Very difficult to convey an ominous emotion with a "happy" sky.

Yes ~~ the skies helped bring some peace,  while I walked the several miles from birkenau I to the larger camp II
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cjogo

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Re: Something different for me
« Reply #6 on: March 22, 2013, 02:14:22 pm »

As a photo it's pretty much eh.

As a, um, multimedia piece (photo and text, i.e. a titled photo) it strikes me as an interesting juxtaposition. Such a happy looking photo, it could be a horse ranch in Kentucky or something. And such an unhappy title.

The interaction of titles with images is an interesting one. As purists, we'd love to tell the story without the title. As artists, maybe we should be open to whatever works?


I guess I was "thinking" multimedia  __ shot medium and 35 all afternoon here    My favorite is a bonnet -bound elderly lady working the fields just outside the entrance --along side the tracks ..

Here is one near the train station  >> upon arrival ---  Mother and Child
« Last Edit: March 22, 2013, 02:20:48 pm by cjogo »
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Eric Myrvaagnes

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Re: Something different for me
« Reply #7 on: March 22, 2013, 03:20:46 pm »

"Mother and Child" is quite lovely.

To me part of the horror of Auschwitz is that it looked so ordinary, and there were no doubt many "happy skies" over it when it was operating at its worst.

I have relatives in Norway on whose property is a Nazi ammunition bunker. Inside are three storage rooms, and the doorways joining them are perfect Gothic Arches. I believe the Nazi masters had a religious fervor about their work, hence the elegance of the buildings at Auschwitz and the Gothic arches inside an ammunition bunker.

So I find the first photo eerily moving.
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cjogo

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Re: Something different for me
« Reply #8 on: March 22, 2013, 04:08:51 pm »



To me part of the horror of Auschwitz is that it looked so ordinary, and there were no doubt many "happy skies" over it when it was operating at its worst.

So I find the first photo eerily moving.

[/quote]

Exactly : how I tried to capture this historical spot >>   Fields of pasture & blue skies > down~play the obvious landmark.. But, show those smoke stacks > where many left there last home / compound...
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nemo295

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Re: Something different for me
« Reply #9 on: March 22, 2013, 05:33:25 pm »


To me part of the horror of Auschwitz is that it looked so ordinary, and there were no doubt many "happy skies" over it when it was operating at its worst.

So I find the first photo eerily moving.



Exactly : how I tried to capture this historical spot >>   Fields of pasture & blue skies > down~play the obvious landmark.. But, show those smoke stacks > where many left there last home / compound...

You have portrayed the "banality of evil" very well. It's a lovely pastoral scene, but just happens to be one where unspeakable atrocities were committed. Evil rarely dresses the part.
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RSL

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Re: Something different for me
« Reply #10 on: March 22, 2013, 05:54:19 pm »

I can't critique this one, Jogo, because Auschwitz has always had a significance I can't deal with. Many years ago I wrote this:

Auschwitz

I am neither German nor Jew and I was a child
when the boxcars carried their cargos of horror over Europe’s clean land,
until the metal brakes shrieked and the wheels slowed
and stopped at last under the watchtowers hovering over those terrible yards
littered with dirty snow.
You who were granted a swift death — who were
chosen indifferently by men bantering with each other as they singled you out —
you were the ones who were blest, for the ones who were spared
suffered agony beyond passion and saw the smoke of the chimneys
blacken whatever was left of life.
But those others — those men who beheld your agony with eyes
that reflected only the sweat of the day’s work
and annoyance at supper delayed —
for them there will be no turning away.
For them, the stench of the ovens will hover over life and death
and defile their children beyond memory;
for the ordinariness of such men reaches over all our lives, even to me,
though I was a child, and innocent
when Auschwitz smoldered at the end of that railroad.

 February 26, 1995
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cjogo

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Re: Something different for me
« Reply #11 on: March 22, 2013, 09:29:49 pm »

I interviewed many people I knew well and acquaintances >  who lived their youth in the camps .. So, as soon as the Wall came down I was out shooting this Polish camp and survivors ...
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cjogo

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Re: Something different for me
« Reply #12 on: March 23, 2013, 12:20:56 am »

I can't critique this one, Jogo, because Auschwitz has always had a significance I can't deal with. Many years ago I wrote this:

Auschwitz

I am neither German nor Jew and I was a child
when the boxcars carried their cargos of horror over Europe’s clean land,
until the metal brakes shrieked and the wheels slowed
and stopped at last under the watchtowers hovering over those terrible yards
littered with dirty snow.
You who were granted a swift death — who were
chosen indifferently by men bantering with each other as they singled you out —
you were the ones who were blest, for the ones who were spared
suffered agony beyond passion and saw the smoke of the chimneys
blacken whatever was left of life.
But those others — those men who beheld your agony with eyes
that reflected only the sweat of the day’s work
and annoyance at supper delayed —
for them there will be no turning away.
For them, the stench of the ovens will hover over life and death
and defile their children beyond memory;
for the ordinariness of such men reaches over all our lives, even to me,
though I was a child, and innocent
when Auschwitz smoldered at the end of that railroad.

 February 26, 1995


Better than any photo I could take ~@@@!!! Wonderfully written,,,,
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Chris Calohan

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Re: Something different for me
« Reply #13 on: March 23, 2013, 09:04:23 am »

And for all the poetic license by Russ (very nice work, by the by), and imagery by Cjogo, you would have to have been there at least once to recognize what and where it was. I certainly would be the last person to degrade the importance of any of the camps, but for the non-seasoned viewer, or to someone not visually familiar with these places, it is just a red-bricked building in a large field with happy skies.

Still, good commentary. You should print this with Russ' poem embedded within it.
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cjogo

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Re: Something different for me
« Reply #14 on: March 23, 2013, 12:18:11 pm »

And for all the poetic license by Russ (very nice work, by the by), and imagery by Cjogo, you would have to have been there at least once to recognize what and where it was. I certainly would be the last person to degrade the importance of any of the camps, but for the non-seasoned viewer, or to someone not visually familiar with these places, it is just a red-bricked building in a large field with happy skies.

Still, good commentary. You should print this with Russ' poem embedded within it.

I have many shots from this camp --- Yes > would be a great marriage with Russ's poem ~!  I have old interviews in Danish, French ,Polish, etc.  Homes I visited and brought along a VHS setup, to get their stories.   This [Forum[/b] has got me researching back through the archives ..I have so much work... I have really never looked at all just binders of sleeved negatives >>  for 30+ years of traveling & dangling a camera.  
« Last Edit: March 23, 2013, 11:01:54 pm by cjogo »
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David Eckels

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Re: Something different for me
« Reply #15 on: March 23, 2013, 03:51:34 pm »

I recognized the image...perhaps the distance is symbolic. It spoke to me. I like the marriage idea of Russ' poem and the photograph.

cjogo

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Re: Something different for me
« Reply #16 on: March 24, 2013, 07:09:30 pm »

Trying to locate a few more ---- I have spindle stacks of CD's  ===thats how most images were saved in the 90's :(

 I hid my camera under my jacket --  24m lens on a early Nikon // ASA 1000
« Last Edit: March 24, 2013, 07:18:59 pm by cjogo »
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nemo295

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Re: Something different for me
« Reply #17 on: March 25, 2013, 02:57:57 pm »

I hid my camera under my jacket --  24m lens on a early Nikon // ASA 1000

The graininess of the film is a good match for such a tragic subject.
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