ISBN: Ostalo
Godina izdanja: -
Jezik: Mađarski
Autor: Strani

Oświęcim-Brzezinka Auschwitz-Birkenau – Adam Bujak

Author: Adam Mazur & Łukasz Gorczyca
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Despite the simple, blatant title, Adam Bujak`s album is not a topographical documentation of the concentration camp`s grounds but a kind of metaphorical, symbolic, and emotive portrait of the place.

Bujak walks around the old camp in search of specific evocative and dramatic frames. He squats or even lies on the ground with his camera, trying to capture and convey the victim`s perspective. At the same time, he treats this place as a kind of landscape subject, while his task as a photographer is to enhance the power and expression of the existing image of reality by means of various artistic methods.

From today`s perspective, the disturbing and somewhat pompous formalism of Bujak`s photographs may come across as too obtrusive, however it is important to remember that this book was created before the wider public became acquainted with Arendt`s and Adorno`s theses (“Is it possible to write poetry after Auschwitz?”) and before discourse on the Shoah was freed from the dominance of communist propaganda. There is not a single mention of Holocaust or Shoah in the book, as the official language of the historiography in the Polish People`s Republic was not yet familiar, or in fact did not want to be familiar with these terms. Bujak`s photographs – in spite of numerous close-ups of details of the camp and museum displays – are also devoid of religious symbols. Oświęcim… is a secular and socialist vision of the extinction – a rather surprising interpretation for an artist whose entire later artistic career was predominantly related to religious-themed photography. This book about Auschwitz-Birkenau was commissioned by the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites, which of course explains its official tone, which matched the historical policy of the Polish People`s Republic. Paradoxically, this album was the book debut of the most prolific author of photobooks in Poland.

photographs: Adam Bujak text: Adolf Gawalewicz graphic design: Witold Chomicz publisher: Sport i Turystyka, Warsaw year of publication: 1972 or 1973 volume: 208 pages format: 30 x 24 cm cover: linen hardcover with dust jacket print run: 15250 Original text: polishphotobook.tumblr.com, transl. Ania Micińska, October 2015

ZAŠTITNI OMOT ISKRZAN

L. SAJ. L.