Sometimes the photographic or creative process leads us to places many other people are not comfortable to go. The film critic Ignatiy Vishnevetsky said "That one of the best things that movies can do is make people look at things they'd rather look away from…" I believe it also applies to any forms of art not just cinema. One topic that many people still shy away from are the acts committed by Nazi Germany during World War II.
Italian photographer Victoria Cagol is currently working on such a topic. A senior at Edinburgh Napier University, Cagol has tackled other social issues using photography. Such as the arms and weapons trades, and its consequences in Africa. Named Consequences (2012), Cagol created a series of diptychs showing the power a single object has over an entire community.
In her current project Death Marches of 1945 (2014), Cagol went to revisit the evacuation trail of Auschwitz-Birkenau camp towards the city of Wodzisław Śląski, using a camera as the device to pay respect to those that died during these horrible times. Cagol’s photographs show a deep reverence towards the landscape and the personal effects left behind by the people forced to participate in the march. These images call to mind the film named Shoah (1985), directed by Claude Lanzmann. Both of these projects aim to juxtapose the modern day landscape with the horrors of the Holocaust and how we attempt to remember those times.
However, this project is still unfinished. Cagol has only spent a few weeks in Poland to document this ambitious project. She wants to go back in April and hopefully May to document areas she was unable to photograph during the winter. As one can imagine a trip from her university in Scotland to Wodzisław Śląski, Poland can be an expensive affair, because of this reason. Cagol has started an Indiegogo page hoping to crowd source enough funds to finish her documentary project.
As a recent graduate from a university, I empathise with Victoria’s struggle to accomplish a project without having to compromise her vision. I highly suggest you to visit her Indiegogo page and see if you can contribute to her project. Victoria has a lot of perks if you go above and beyond the call of duty.
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/death-marches-of-1945-a-photographic-project
Until next time,
Alex