The Remains: Seligenstadt Synagogue in Wet Plate Collodion
Posted on November 2nd, 2008 in Art & Theory, Collodion Images, Kristallnacht
Today, I made the image that will appear on the first page of my book (I think). The image shows the original steps of the Seligenstadt synagogue. These steps are the only thing left of the synagogue. It was burned on November 9/10, 1938 during Kristallnacht. If you think about the metaphor of stairs (especially ascending/descending) you’ll get where I’m going with this.
The emptiness is what moves me the most when I’m making photographs where the mighty, vibrant synagogues once stood in these small villages. I’m almost trying to photograph what isn’t there. It’s very difficult to do. It’s also very sad.
A friend from Berlin, Jan, met us in Seligenstadt this morning. His mother lives there and his step-father has done an enormous amount of research on the Jewish community (that was) in Seligenstadt.
After making a positive image and a negative image of the same scene (the steps), we (Summer, Jan and I) went for coffee and looked at the “stumbling stones” around the village. There was a significant Jewish community that lived in this village until 1938. It’s the same story in all of these places. Jan had newspaper clippings from the Seligenstadt newspaper (from 1935) that showed a page of ads for office furniture, shoes and clothes, and in the middle of these “common ads” was another kind of ad that read, “The Jews are our misfortune” (”Die Juden sind unser Unglück”). Mind-blowing and very educational.
The last two images are the positive (8×10 Black Glass Ambrotype) and the negative (8×10). I’ll make a POP print this week of of the negative.
If you click on this image you can read what I dropped on the photo.
I wasn’t sure about the light and being in a hole with a lot of warm colors. It worked out though.
Almost ready to make the exposure - it was about 3-4 seconds at about 11AM.
Pouring the Collodion onto the black glass.
Fairly confident about my chemistry, lens and the light, it was time to make the plate.
This is always a site - I’m not really sure why - I know the Germans didn’t have a clue to what we were doing.
The 8×10 Black Glass (positive) Ambrotype.
My 8×10 negative. I’ll make 10 prints (POP) for the set of handmade books I want to do with this project. I’m not sure I’ll make all ten prints this week, but I’ll make at least one and post it here so you can see.
I’m going back to Seligenstadt next week. We’re suppose to have a key to get into the Juden Friedhof (Jewish cemetery) - it was vandalized during Kristallnacht as well. Look for those images next week!
Thank you Summer and Jan. It was a great day. This is very important work, thanks for being a part of it.
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