A Requiem: Tribute to the Spiritual Space at Auschwitz
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© Susan May Tell
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In Auschwitz, I felt the presence of its ghosts guiding me, guiding my camera, and was then, and continue to be now, moved to share the tragedy of this place through the images I saw through my lens. During an impromptu visit in 1998, I walked the grounds in silence, in meditation, photographing the aesthetics, the mood, the sense of foreboding—and tried to capture the energy that lives in that space. Like others’ sacred grounds that are decaying, Auschwitz today is disappearing and raises
questions about whether places of this kind should be restored and the importance of memory and commemoration. Equally important to my artistic vision is my commitment to Auschwitz as a meditation on decay and memory. -Susan May Tell |
Auschwitz was the largest of Nazi Germany’s concentration camps and where between 1.3 million and 1.5 million
people--90% of whom were Jewish--were murdered in gas chambers. Located in Oswiecim, Poland, it is a mere 40
miles from Krakow, Poland’s second largest city. Requiem is an experiential viewing experience of large scale black and-white photographs which simulate the immediacy of being there. They reveal the presence of unspeakable horror, convey the ever present pathos of desolation, and give a real sense of the large scale of this death camp.
Mentored by André Kertész, Roy DeCarava, Garry Winogrand and Helen Gee, Susan May Tell's first one-person exhibition of fine art photography appeared in San Francisco in 1982. A few months later she began accepting commissions from The New York Times and later became a staff photographer for The New York Post. A founding member of Saba Press Photos, based first in Cairo and then in Paris, her photos appeared on the covers of Time and Newsweek and in major publications worldwide.
A companion catalogue is available:
A Requiem: Tribute to the Spiritual Space at Auschwitz, with poetry by Stanley Kunitz
Number of photographs: 17
Images sizes: 48 x 72 inches
Rental fee: $4500 for 8 weeks
Additional weeks may be booked for an extra 10% per week.
Online Resources and Reviews:
Susan May Tell
Elizabeth Avedon Blog
New Landscape Photography
The New York Times
Professional Women Photographers
PHOTO Arts Magazine
people--90% of whom were Jewish--were murdered in gas chambers. Located in Oswiecim, Poland, it is a mere 40
miles from Krakow, Poland’s second largest city. Requiem is an experiential viewing experience of large scale black and-white photographs which simulate the immediacy of being there. They reveal the presence of unspeakable horror, convey the ever present pathos of desolation, and give a real sense of the large scale of this death camp.
Mentored by André Kertész, Roy DeCarava, Garry Winogrand and Helen Gee, Susan May Tell's first one-person exhibition of fine art photography appeared in San Francisco in 1982. A few months later she began accepting commissions from The New York Times and later became a staff photographer for The New York Post. A founding member of Saba Press Photos, based first in Cairo and then in Paris, her photos appeared on the covers of Time and Newsweek and in major publications worldwide.
A companion catalogue is available:
A Requiem: Tribute to the Spiritual Space at Auschwitz, with poetry by Stanley Kunitz
Number of photographs: 17
Images sizes: 48 x 72 inches
Rental fee: $4500 for 8 weeks
Additional weeks may be booked for an extra 10% per week.
Online Resources and Reviews:
Susan May Tell
Elizabeth Avedon Blog
New Landscape Photography
The New York Times
Professional Women Photographers
PHOTO Arts Magazine
| ARTnews, 2005_Requiem.pdf |
| The Forward, 2005_Requiem.pdf |
| Sun_Sentinel, 2005_Requiem.pdf |
| Winchester_Star, 2009_Requiem.pdf |
