Remembrance of Resistance: Plac Bohaterów Getta, Krakow
Artist Statement
Empty chairs in Plac Bohaterów Getta: memorial to victims and resistance fighters in Jewish Ghetto of Krakow Poland.
Memorials around the world honor those who resisted oppression and totalitarianism. The empty chairs in this historic city square (Plac Bohaterów Getta) in the Prague Jewish Ghetto represent the thousands of humans who were victims and resistance fighters in the Holocaust. The chairs evoke a sense of departure and loss through left behind household articles as well as manifest opposition to totalitarianism and authoritarian oppression.
This photograph was made on film via a plastic camera, the Diana. The plastic lenses and spring mechanisms produce a dreamy soft focus on photographic film and some vignetting. The plastic camera often allows light leaks in the photographs and scratches on the film for creative effect. The images are created in a square format.
Michael C. Roberts wonders how he became a septuagenarian so quickly. He had a fulfilling academic career in clinical child psychology. Endeavoring to scratch an itch to be differently creative, he returned to his avocation of photography, making images in both digital and analog formats. His photographs have appeared in American Psychologist, Health Psychology, The Canary, Images Arizona, Burningword, The Storms, The Healing Muse, and elsewhere. He is generally an upbeat sort of fellow and seeks to memorialize people and places. His book of film photographs is available on Amazon: Imaging the World with Plastic Cameras: Diana and Holga.
