News
I Wasn’t Afraid of Emotion
The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and the Pauza Foundation for the Development and Promotion of Contemporary Art have published Mikołaj Grynberg’s album Auschwitz: What Am I Doing Here?
The starting point for the book is the story of Grynberg’s grandmother, an Auschwitz survivor. Learning about the experiences of a close relative led to a trip to the Memorial, where he watched people visiting the site of the Auschwitz Nazi German concentration camp. He picked out people at random, photographed them, and interviewed them in an effort to learn why they had come there and what they felt.
“The photographs are a pretext for me,” says Grynberg. “I went to Auschwitz to talk to people. I told them that I am a photographer and that I am taking pictures. This time, in contrast to all my other projects, the photography isn’t really important. The experience is the main thing.”
Most of the pictures in the resulting album are black-and-white and deliberately out of focus. “Grynberg's use of the long exposure time in his photography creates a unique eeriness that portrays Auschwitz in an authentic manner. The quotes are as haunting as the photos. For those who themselves cannot journey in person to Auschwitz, this book will provide a window into what they would see and feel,” says Michael Schudrich, the head rabbi of Poland.
On the brief statements by visitors that accompany the photos, the director of the Museum, Piotr M.A. Cywiński, wonders “whether these words are in any way representative of the visitors in general. I don’t know. I’m not a big believer in statistics. If readers recognize themselves here in any way, then the album can serve as a mirror. If not, the readers might linger for a moment over one or another of the quotations, and be able to imagine some other person through those words.”
The album is the first stage of a project by Grynberg, which will also include an exhibition and an educational program.
The book can be purchased in the online bookshoop of the State Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Mikołaj Grynberg. Auschwitz. What am I doing here? Cracow 2009
Publisher: Pauza Foundation for the Development and Promotion of Contemporary Art, Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum
23 x 21 cm., hardback
ISBN: 978- 7704- 003- 4
