Popioły i zbliżenia. Materialność śladów Zagłady w fotografii
Ashes and Close-ups. Material Traces of the Shoah in Photography

Summary/Abstract: The text aims to draw a link between the concretization of the memory of the Holocaust and the affective effect of photography and experimental artistic techniques employing photography. The main argument is that focusing on the materiality of experiencing the physical traces of Shoah, as well as the structure and tangibility of the artistic gesture and materials used in the artistic process, can activate the affective potential of a “feeling witness” or “wit(h)ness” in both the artist and the spectator. To do that, it is necessary to transform the objectifying gaze into a look that touches and feels. The article analyses examples of artistic / photographic works that seek to mobilise this kind of look by reaching for the concrete tactility of ashes – both as a figure, as artistic material and as physical presence that can leave its imprint on the photographic film: Elżbieta Janicka’s series Miejsca nieparzyste / The Odd Places, and a photograph from Wojciech Wilczyk’s series Powiększenia / Blow-ups. Theorising the possibility of making an analogy between the process of working through the traumatic event in an act of artistic creativity and incorporating the ashes into a non-phallic order of signification, the text also refers to Bracha L. Ettinger’s notion of Transcriptum both in her theoretical elaboration of the term and her art.

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