It is time to remember again. The low gray overcast skies, the early November rains and the beginning of the darkness of winter are all pointers to the nearing of the day where people everywhere gather in front of cenotaphs, memorials and museums to remember. We remember the sacrifice that previous generations had to make to give us the freedoms we often take for granted.
I recently bought a second hand book of Photographs of World War 2 at our annual library sale here on Bowen Island. This is by no means the first war to be photographed. None the less, it is compelling to view these haunting images from the past of young men and women in the most destructive of all wars in human history.
I think most people have seen images from WW2. It has become part of a collective memory that resides in our sub-conscious. We have a mental image of that time which is based on no single photograph, but a blend of them all.
If I think of what images defines WW2 for me, it would be the contrast between the photos of destroyed towns and abandoned concentration camps filled with emaciated souls, taken by Allied photographers like Elizabeth Miller and Sam Gilbert, and the propaganda images of Hitler and the Nazi's taken by Leni Riefenstahl in Triumph of the will and Olympia. The difference between fanatic idealism and the harsh realities it left in its wake.
May the images made by those brave photographers remain in our minds. Let us never forget.
It is time to remember again. The low gray overcast skies, the early November rains and the beginning of the darkness of winter are all pointers to the nearing of the day where people everywhere gather in front of cenotaphs, memorials and museums to remember. We remember the sacrifice that previous generations had to make to give us the freedoms we often take for granted.
I recently bought a second hand book of Photographs of World War 2 at our annual library sale here on Bowen Island. This is by no means the first war to be photographed. None the less, it is compelling to view these haunting images from the past of young men and women in the most destructive of all wars in human history.
I think most people have seen images from WW2. It has become part of a collective memory that resides in our sub-conscious. We have a mental image of that time which is based on no single photograph, but a blend of them all.
If I think of what images defines WW2 for me, it would be the contrast between the photos of destroyed towns and abandoned concentration camps filled with emaciated souls, taken by Allied photographers like Elizabeth Miller and Sam Gilbert, and the propaganda images of Hitler and the Nazi's taken by Leni Riefenstahl in Triumph of the will and Olympia. The difference between fanatic idealism and the harsh realities it left in its wake.
May the images made by those brave photographers remain in our minds. Let us never forget.
1 comment:
sad.. & nice..
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