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My Photo scholarship 2010 entry

Poland | Sunday, October 17, 2010 | 4 photos

I am someone who has always wanted to learn the techniques of photography, but hasn’t come to it. The decision not to study it, is one I regret to this day. After my studies of translation, I started working as a TV journalist. I think I should be chosen for the scholarship, because I am extremely willing to learn and I know I have the eyes of an eagle when it comes to (nature) photography. I promise to make the best of this unbelivably great chance.
As a polish person living in Germany I feel bonded with my home country, especially in the light of the tragic history which both countries have in common. When I came to Germany 11 years ago, I didn’t realize that the history is so much alive, the Holocaust about which I learned at school and which I have seemed to come to terms with as a part of a distnant history, aroused with a dobble strenght. I started blaming my parents for making me live in a country of perpetrators, of a nation which is capable of commiting such atrocities. I felt grieve and anger. After a while, I found myself in a weird role of some kind of a victim-offender mediator, standing between my fatherland and a country, which became my new home. I began to listen to the neverending debates, and understood, that people of this country carry the heavy burden of the history to this very day. And I know that no bad countries exist, but only bad people.
My pictures show Ausschwitz near Krakow (Poland), a place where the line between life and death seems to be thinner than elswhere. They reflect the difficult emotional phases I have come through to stand where I am today. The face of the joung Polish girl stands not only for me, but for many people who has suffered without having experienced that time on their own flesh and blood.
Enjoy.