ANALYSIS: JEFFREY WOLIN

This is the work done by photographer Jeffrey Wolin. It is part of his 'Written in memory' series and this is one of the portraits he took for his 'Portraits of the Holocaust'. The subject matter of his photographs are survivors of the Holocaust and he depicts their story not only through photographs but he also adds to them by writing the person's account on the holocaust. These photographs address the mental state and courage of these survivors and gives them some form of 'closer' by giving them voice to speak about these memories that will forever haunt them, and finding a creative way to release them. The subject matter is treated very realistically and is no way manipulated to create some form of abstractionism. At first glance, one may not be able to understand fully the meaning behind the photograph. You can gather that it may have something to do with loss, since the subject is holding a photograph of a child and is looking down on it, however it is not until you read the text which surrounds the subject that you fully understand the photograph and its meaning. 

The photograph is a close up shot of the subject. There isn't much in the background, apart from glimpses of what seem to be windows, so I assume she is inside a house. Also the photograph gets lighter the more it comes closer to the subject, it looks as if she is radiating this light, whereas it gets darker the further it gets. The photograph is quite contrasted with the woman being lighter than her clothes and also her background being quite dark. I think this works really well, as to me it gives the impression that she has overcome so much through out her life time and all the darkness that once surrounded her is slowing fading away. 

I think the photograph, although posed it was done with true feeling form the photographer and the subject since it is dealing with such a controversial subject. The photographer seemed to have used a wide angled lens, I assume this was because he wanted the focus to be on the subject matter and also since he writes on top of his photos, if the background was too busy you wouldn't be able to make out what he had written. I am not too sure how he added the text but it does look handwritten and not something which is computerised, so I assume he wrote directly onto his photographs.

 I feel as if these people finally have the confidence and freedom to talk about something which dramatically affected their lives and having someone present it in a photograph just reinforces the idea of remembrance and the power that photographs poses. The words of the survivors are etched on the photographs like tattoos and is something that no one can remove.