Large Format Photography Holocaust Art Show

[realthaideal]

An earlier thread disappeared so here's my announcement of a very interesting and thought provoking Photography Art Show I'll be attending tmw night, Thursday 1/31/08 at CMU Arts Center/Museum across from the Convention Hall.

The show is called "In My Mother's Footsteps" and is a documentary shot in Large Format by International Photographer Yishay Garbasz. There is a whole lot more to this than just another retelling of The Holocaust. The project has unique depth.

Briefly, his mother was a Holocaust survivor but never spoke of the terrible things she experienced as a kid as she first fled the Nazis in Holland and then was shipped off to camps throughout Europe until the war ended. It was NEVER spoken of, not even to her family. However, her husband knew her story. Finally, while on his deathbed, Yishay's father sketched the outline of her life including the difficult war years for her and made a dying request that she then go fill in the details of her life and the events in more detail. He died very shortly afterward. To honor him, she finally wrote down her story, quickly, in anecdotal form with very vivid snapshots of the events of her life. The text of her life is very very compelling. Now,....Yishay and his Mom had always had ups and downs in their relationship. When he read the text of her memories he began to understand her on a much deeper level. He is a man who likes to UNDERSTAND. Not to judge, but to LOOK, and UNDERSTAND.

He then decided to undertake a massive art project, based on the outline in her book, and visit all the places mentioned in her story to simply just SEE what was there TODAY. Again, he went to see and not to judge. He took his large format camera with him and got amazingly still and moving shots through about 8 countries in Europe of not just concentration camps (which everyone has done), but also of the home his mother was born in, from the inside and the outside thanks to the new residents. He managed to find a lady still alive who was his Mom's childhood neighbor who had hidden some of the family valuables for them and then returned them after the war. He photographed a temple that is now a basketball gymnasium, and a quaint road that was part of the deathmarch as the allies advanced toward the end of the war. The pictures are not of horror or sadness, but just WHAT IS, they are there for everyone to look, see, feel, and think on their own. What's great about this work is that it transcends the usual sad story that is given to such work. It is simply an investigation into what it is like there now, and an attempt to internalize some of the experiences and places his mother had known.

The work is very moving. There will be some political bigwigs there tmw. But the show is not political. Pulling off the show and the project is many years in the making and many pl have helped make this come to fruition for him. The Israeli Embassy has helped tremendously, as has City Life. Naturally the subject attracts politics, but it is much more than that, it is Art and Understanding. I'm a fan of his work and will be there. Hope to see others in our community who want to meet a special artist in our midst, and enjoy his unique take on photography.

CityLife, by the way, ran an article on it recently with a bit of a different take on the show written by our good friend Bob from the Writer's Club: http://www.chiangmainews.com/ecmn/viewfa.php?id=2072

Again: In My Mother's Footsteps Thursday 1/31/08 6 pm CMU Arts Center Show goes until 2/10/08.