In Auschwitz, I felt the presence of its ghosts guiding me, guiding my camera, and was
then, and continue to be now, moved to share this place's tale of tragedy through the images
I saw through my lens.
  
I arrived there almost by happenstance. While planning a trip to Prague and Budapest, I
learned that an overnight train goes from Prague to Krakow – and from there it was a short local train ride to Auschwitz.
  
I walked the grounds in silence, in meditation, photographing the aesthetics, the mood, the
sense of foreboding – and tried to capture the energy that lives in that space.
      
Visitors to the exhibition will find these images - of the relics and abandoned property of the former camp - reveal the presence of unspeakable horror, convey the ever present pathos of desolation, and give a real sense of the large scale of this death camp.

Equally important to my artistic vision is my commitment to Auschwitz as a meditation on decay and memory. Like others' sacred grounds that have been neglected and are decaying, (i.e. Rwanda and Cambodia), Auschwitz today is disappearing. The loss of its spirirtual presence raises major questions about whether places of this kind, and others such as NYC's World Trade Center, should be restored and the importance of memory and commemoration.

There are 17 prints, of which one is printed twice, the second as a reverse. The photographs are printed 6 x 4 feet on gelatin silver paper, full frame, with the sprocket marks visible. They are mounted on 1/8" black sintra and attached to wood strainers, with adjustable length cable on top to adjust to the ceiling height of a venue. They can be hung on the wall, hung singly from the ceiling, or doubly when attached back-to-back with velcro on the strainers. Each photograph (mounted, strainer, cable) weighs about 15 lbs.

The exhibition is housed and travels in one specially designed wood museum crate, 82 x 57 x 31 inches, currently in climate-controlled storage at the NYS Exhibition Alliance.

Requiem was first exhibited at the Museum of Art / Fort Lauderdale, where it was reviewed by ARTnews, and is scheduled for the Griffin Museum of Photography, September 2009.

There are many possibilities for involving your community and Susan May Tell is available for these: artist's talk, large group presentations, panel discussions, meeting high school and college students, and for press and TV interviews.

A book will soon be available which you can preview at www.blurb.com/books/370937

Images, artist statement, and artist bio - susanmaytell.com/exhibition/SusanMayTell.html

The virtual museum at the University of Minnesota's Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies - www.chgs.umn.edu/museum/responses/tell/