Who would think that there was a concentration camp in Jersey? The Nazis appeared to have extended their killing networks until the Channel Islands. Photographer Marc Wilson did an extensive survey in the form of landscapes, documents, details, portraits and interviews about the still visible remnants and personal memories of the Holocaust. His 738 pages-thick book A Wounded Landscape, Bearing Witness to the Holocaust is a testimonial of the cruel atrocities committed by the Nazis during the 2nd World War.

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For his extensive documentary, Marc Wilson travelled during a six-year odyssey to 20 European countries, where he visited 130 locations. In his book, he presents his work in the form of 22 stories, personal memories intertwined with physical remnants. Wilson has a family history that acted as a trigger to make his testament. He felt the need to make this work about the Holocaust for over 20 years, ever since he started taking photographs. He thought it was important to share this work to trigger conversations about it. It took him many years to embark on his epic journey because he felt he was not ready enough as a photographer. “I felt I did not have the right voice or visual language to talk about it in the right way.” His own family history is also a part of the book, just as one of the many stories, no more or no less important than the others.

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I was guided by the stories themselves and their locations.

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Trauma

Unintentionally Wilson chose a crucial point in history to come forward with his elaborate work. The work is as relevant today as ever, as can be seen by events that continue to happen in our world, not least in Ukraine today. The trauma of the Holocaust is still profoundly felt by the generations that followed those who survived or were murdered, combining layers of tragedy with guilt. The written stories in the book tell the tragic events remembered and recounted by the survivors or their children, often preceded by a reluctance to talk about past events. Yair Ebelson said: “In my house, there was no talking about the Holocaust.” He never managed to address the topic with his grandparents.  

Wilson worked all over Europe in multiple countries where these histories took place. “From Moldova to France, Germany to Ukraine, Austria to Greece. I was guided by the stories themselves and their locations, the specific sites connected to the 22 individual stories they told me.” He did not make one country more important than another. “I have worked at locations where bone fragments of the murdered, burnt, and crushed prisoners seep through the sandy soil and on a small road in Moldova, with an unmarked ditch at its side where several people were shot. Each location carries its own importance.”

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Photography and text

The photography in the book comprises landscapes and portraits. The combinations create personal and historical information. The texts are an integral part of the project, showing that photography and text often need and complement each other. But the stories also form the right starting point for the reader to see the photos. Wilson says about his approach: “The people I met were survivors or children and grandchildren of those who survived or were murdered. I sat and listened to their stories for hours, recording what they told me on audio. These are the transcriptions that form the story text in the work. It was important for me to allow them to share what they wanted rather than me to guide them to answer only certain points through specific questions. Only after we had spoken, we made the portrait. This way, I knew they would show themselves in the way they wanted to be seen, not the other way around. From there, I would travel to the locations in their story, making the location photographs. I needed to visit these places with their stories in my head, as they told me.”

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Only after we had spoken, we made the portrait.

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Silent witnesses

The landscapes in the book play the role of silent witnesses. Wilson often made the shots in wintertime, or in the early morning, with the gentle soft light creating a pensive or gloomy mood. “I did not seek out misty conditions only, as I had in my previous work, as this seemed trite given the subject matter, but early light often leads to them anyway.” He did not take the landscapes in a formal way, shot from a distance, but sought to come closer with his camera to the burden of the past. He found his voice in coming closer to the witnesses in the form of walls, stations, doors, crossroads, withered stones, and railways.

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Marc Wilson (b. 1968, London) Marc Wilson’s studies took him from Sociology to Photography, and he has been taking photographs ever since. Wilson works on long-term documentary projects. They include The Last Stand, 2010-2014, and A Wounded Landscape - bearing witness to the Holocaust, 2015-2021. He has published 4 photo books to date.

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book: A Wounded Landscape - bearing witness to the Holocaust, 738 pages, Published by two&two press

https://www.marcwilson.co.uk ‍

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Impressions Gallery Centenary Square Bradford, BD1 1SD, United Kingdom
Saturday, 28 October 2023 to Saturday, 3 February 2024
www.impressions-gallery.com

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