These are pictures of Dachau concentration camp near Munich, Germany. They are not easy to look at. It is not an easy place to visit. But there might be few places on earth better suited to our study of black and white photography and what colors do to the way we view images… and, indeed, life itself…
That is an oven. It was used to burn the bodies of human beings. There were a lot of ovens at Dachau. People still put flowers in and around them. I removed the colors from all of this photograph except the colors of the flowers. When I was working on these in Photoshop, I can still remember that day at Dachau like it was yesterday… even though it was almost ten years ago that I was there.
I could have done these images with no color at all, yet somehow, this seems even more powerful.
That is the front gate. The words say; “ARBEIT MACHT FREI”… which is German for: “Work sets you free”… because they were still trying to make the people who entered these gates believe that it was just a work camp. And prisoners did work… until they died of malnutrition, disease, cold, exhaustion, or the random brutality of the guards… all except the huge number that were selected for death immediately upon entering the camp.
I took all the colors out of these pictures.
This is a place that almost doesn’t deserve colors somehow. The darkness and shadows shouldn’t be softened with colors.
These photos now seem more like just history. And maybe that helps us stay one step removed and in a strange way cushions the shock just a little.
The darkness of hell inside the ovens offset by the beauty of flowers laid in memorial to those who passed through that hell…
This is history, but it isn’t just history. It is also still a real place that you can go. I think that it is a place that everyone should visit at least once in their life, but, as I said, it isn’t an easy thing to do.
Pouring My Art Out 
The flowers in these remind me of the girl in the red coat in Schindler’s list a poetic visual juxtapositioning between life and death and how fragile life is when people stand by and do nothing
Thank you, that is a very nice and well-worded compliment.
I’ve seen these photos before, mostly in black & white. They are so powerful.
well, you haven’t seen these photos before, or do you mean photos like them?
Very moving photos. I especially like the contrast of the brilliant Gladiolas against the somber grey of the oven, makes it even more somber and startling.
I thought so too, thanks.
Powerful shots and thoughts
thank you
Beyond words
It truly is
It makes you want to weep for what went on there.
Leslie
That is how I felt…
It’s scary what we humans are capable of doing to each other.
it really is
good choice on the pics.
thank you sir