01.22.2012 – Jewish Cemetery: Remembering the Holocaust (a personal photo project)

I wasn’t around in the 1940s to experience the emotions of World War II first hand. In my mind, it seems to be one of the darkest eras in human history. I have no way of knowing what it was truly like, except in the reports and stories that survive from the people who lived it themselves.

Near my home is the Beth Abraham Cemetery. It’s in the South Hills of Pittsburgh, PA. When I first started my photographic journey several years ago, I wandered this cemetery because I was in a fairly dark place in my own mind. For whatever reason, I was able to find peace in this place. A sense of perspective if you will. However, at that time, I didn’t really think beyond my own self-misery and really get a sense of the statement that a place like this makes: the stories, miseries, and tragedies that are held within the memories of the families connected to these people. Since then, I’ve gained some much needed perspective, and yesterday decided to re-visit this place. I wanted to capture some images that would convey a bit of the mood of the place, and the thing that’s most striking to me about it: the way that the markers just seem to be almost piled on top of each other. The cemetery is incredibly crowded. Which in and of itself, seems to be a metaphor for the way that the Jews were rounded up during the war.

As far as the technicals go for the photos themselves, I used my Nikon d300 and most of these I used my lensbaby 2.0. A couple of the photos, I used my 10.5 mm fisheye lens. In the post processing, I’ve been working for a long time trying to refine my skills at creating images that give a feel of the era (I still have a long way to go on this: one day I will probably just break down and buy a 1940s era film camera).