One picture, two points of view

Take a look, what do you see?

Now read these two opposing points of view:

Each magnificent photo acknowledges what it took to survive. And by their very willingness to be there before the camera, it acknowledges their triumph. It is an honor to bear witness to the radiance of their spirit.

The pseudo-tragic lighting creates a false sense of victimization. I would have liked to see these remarkable people in full with all their individuality and personality fully illuminated. As some of the other commentators pointed out, they should be celebrated for their vitality, not half hidden in shadows and made into victims a second time for the sake of some photographic aesthetic.

These are pictures of Holocaust survivors taken by the photographer Maciek Nabrdalik.

This is how the photographer explains the pictures to the New York Times Lens Blog:

“I believe that by looking into their eyes, a sharper perspective will appear and perhaps help us understand the nature of the enormity of this atrocity a little bit better,” Mr. Nabrdalik said. “Understand it on a human scale, that is.”

“What I find striking about the Nazi camps’ statistics is their impersonality, the namelessness of the victims,” he said. “This series is an attempt to give them faces and to breathe individuality and humanity into the detached historical accounts.”

Do the photos really tell us anything about the ‘individuality’ of those sitting ?   To me they represent a homogenisation of grief. ‘Individuality’ withers under the weight of a brutal aesthetic and style,  and that above all else is where the photographers explanation seems a little misguided.  Its an easy trap to fall into by someone has indeed looked into their eyes, whilst we are left to peer into our screens.

Does this negate the validity of these pictures?  Not at all. Nabrdalik deserves great respect for his attempt to shed new light on one of histories darkest hours.  Read the comments, these photos have resonated with many, but maybe Nabrdalik would have done better to let the pictures and those within them do the talking.