The images in this post were made as part of a series of images in response to my journey to the Dachau concentration camp. Part of my work involved planting over 2000 forget me nots around the camp outskirts- unfortunately I havnt had the chance to revisit the site to see if any of the plants had taken- so I used other images of forget me nots from my own garden as layer material in the images.

The image below is the final outcome from this series of work based on the Dachau Concentration Camp.  In particular I think the image of the tower was a lasting memory that I identified with more so than any other of the more blatant and definite imagery that symbolises the history surrounding Germany`s first concentration camp- that was responsible for over 32,000 (documented) deaths until it was liberated in 1945 .

The image below is one of the few images i photographed whilst in Dachau using my Minolta 404si.  I took a lot of double exposures thanks to its in (revolutionary at the time)camera DE setting- which was doing the layering job for me, long before Photoshop.  The image was a bit of a fluke as I took the 1st exposure at Gleis 17 and the next in Dachau-so it was a "hope for the best" shot- that luckily paid off.  I later used multiple exposures in the development process as a means to layer and develop images.  

The photograph above is from the jewish memorial at Grunewald Station, Berlin- Gleis 17- where each different transport destined for the different camps/ ghettos is recorded on huge embossed metal plates.  The experience will never leave me- and is a powerful, understated testament to the horror of the final solution. Gleis 17 leaves you with the permanent memory and conflict of why? all of the events transpired- which, there is no defining or rational answer for.

Many of the images you could use or photograph when visiting memorials are often laden with automatic/ associative meanings that are difficult to work with- due to their challenging nature.  To avoid this I attempted to capture more abstract compositions when photographing to avoid obvious imagery.  I used the stretched oval shape of the grille on the metal plate as a motif and repeat shape in my images more so than the embossed text above it- to reference my experience at Gleis 17.

I had always been interested in World War Two- in particular the struggle of all of the many different creeds and cultures sent to the death camps of Auschwitz, Belsen and Dachau- especially so as my Grandfather was captured and sent to a Polish Concentration Camp (Stallag 21) were he was imprisoned for 2 years, until he managed to escape and flee back to France.  

XXX

I hope this this post inspires you to find out more about the history of the concentration camps and their place in history.  I am a firm believer that the lessons learnt from the past should inform the future.  I still think about Dachau and with the ever increasing tragedy seen in areas of Syria, the images and experiences still define my thinking about current events in the news…