In this unique exhibition, the first of its kind, close to 1,500 images are displayed, including photographs, albums, diaries and newspaper pages. In addition, there are 16 screens in the exhibition, in which 13 films are shown. The exhibition also features three-dimensional photographs taken by the Germans during the Holocaust.
The design concept of the hall was to convey a continuous observation experience. The visitor walks through the exhibition as if in a huge camera obscura. The visual language of the exhibition is a kind of abstraction and development of material and graphic motifs inspired by the periodic camera in general and the Leica camera in particular. The contents of this exhibition are displayed in sequence on walls that simulate the body of the cameras, and in the center is a continuous line of display inspired by the camera film.
At the center of the hall is a light-table about 17 meters long. On it are about 1,500 photographs, randomly arranged, which express the intensity and severity of the events. The photographs are developed on a slide, like negatives, and symbolize the visual stock of the period. At the end of the light-table, in the section describing the liberation of the camps, is a powerful beam of light on which a video-art is projected on the wall. Opposite it, on the other side of the exhibition, is a round opening, shaped like a camera lens. This peephole allows the visitors of Yad Vashem to peek from the outside into the exhibition hall and to strengthen the internal-external, external-internal or photographer-photographed connection according to the viewing angle of the visitor.
Yad Vashem, Jerusalem // area: about 800 square meter // curator: Vivian Uria
historical advisor: Dr. Daniel Uziel, assistant curator: Maayan Zamir-Ohana // January 2018
Still Photography: Jeremy Feldman