265/544
Category
Fine Art
Location
Image was not'taken' it was made
Gear
All source images were made either on my canon 5D mark III or on my iphone
Description
This ongoing project is a memorial to 544 psychiatric patients murdered by the Nazis in 1941 in Latvia. The figurative images I’ve made are all cyanotypes. Eventually there will one for each man, woman and child killed. My grandmother was working at the hospital from where the patients were taken. I have visited the hospital and found that although the story is known no memorial exists. The only official record seems to be a short paragraph in the Nuremberg report. So far I have found no record of the names. Using a historic photographic process feels fitting for a project examining a historical event. An ancient pagan Latvian folk symbol is drawn on by hand in gold ink to each piece. It is impossible for me to look at these images without thinking about how the lives of these people ended. However, the project is primarily intended as a memorial. I wanted the images to hint at some more celebratory moments, to remember the lives lived before these people entered the hospital; before they died. Not knowing anything about the the identities of the dead, I have tried to imagine each one as a unique, precious being, and give each back a little of the character stripped from them when they were murdered and reduced by history to a number on a list of nameless victims. The project is the second in a trilogy looking at my family history, examining themes of cultural inheritance, identity and intergenerational trauma.
Photographer
Sarah Ketelaars
Social Media
Instagram: sarahketelaars
Facebook: sarah ketelaars
Website: https://www.sarahketelaars.com
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