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JamesBardolph β The Gate
Published: 2005-10-14 20:30:19 +0000 UTC; Views: 12236; Favourites: 388; Downloads: 947
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Description
European Photo Trip #2: Krakow, Poland. Day trip to Auschwitz.The entrance gate that prisoners called the "Gate of Death" was located in the main SS guardhouse building. Trains carrying deportees entered here after May 1944 on the railroad spur that extended into the camp.
Auschwitz II (Birkenau) is the camp that people know simply as "Auschwitz". It was the site of imprisonment of hundreds of thousands, and the murder of over one million people, mainly Jews.
The camp's main purpose, however, was not internment with forced labor (as Auschwitz I & III) but rather extermination. For this purpose, the camp was equipped with 4 crematoria with gas chambers; each gas chamber was designed to hold up to 2500 people at one time.
Large-scale extermination started in Spring 1942.
Text sources: auschwitz-muzeum.oswiecim.pl , Wikipedia
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Comments: 188
Sombre, moody shot. Not much I can say, but 
-Tom
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Great work. I think I have seen this picture somewhere before...
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Nice catch on the sky scheme; it certainly added a feel to the building itself. After reading the description of the building, I also notice that part of the cloud looks look a face.
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Seriously bitching James, love the deepness in black tones.
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That is an incredible shot of a terrible place. The perspective of the photo is wonderful for the setting. Well done.
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This is one of the best photos of that place I ever seen. Excellent.
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Its an horrific part of history, but we need to learn from it so we know it will never happen again...
Great shot. The black and white makes it even more imosing and cool.
it even looks as if there is a face in the clouds.
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Lovely shot.
I'm sure that has been taken a million times before, but it doesn't detract from its gravity.
The fact that you have the brooding sky adds a lot of atmosphere.
This photo asks so many questions.
My favourite of the lot.
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That's remind me some black days : trip in Poland with my friends...
Drinking Vodka, smoking ... Not too balck.
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I was there many years ago now, we had the emotive nature of the rain which offset on the buildings at Auschwitz II. I'll never forget the gate nor many of the other things I saw there as long as I live.
You've captured the pic very nicely, symetrical and ominous. I'd add it to my favs if I could bear to look at it that often.
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They called this the "Gate of Death," did they? Then you've captured it properly, so foreboding, so grim. Wonderful tones and the lines are good too. Jesus, crazy things happened there⦠It's nice of you to add the historical info too (everybody needs to learn 
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Wow. This is very impressive. Moody and poignant.
It's great how you've really captured that sort of a doomsday atmosphere, like there was still so much evil hanging in the air around there.
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<3's the symmetry!
This photo gives me goosebumps and takes me to another era that I wish never happened.
Powerful and striking!
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great angle/perspective...beautiful tones and contrast...
this series is so strong
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This is simply excellent. Amazing perspective and details. Easily portrays the pain experienced at Krakow in the grungy feel.
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I really love this shot! The simpicity of the composition, the low and wide angle exagerates the distance from the camera to the entrance gate and leads your eye into the shot well, tracing the path along the track that thousands of people have taken in the past knowing it could be their last. We can almost live it through their eyes by looking at this shot which is brilliant. You was lucky to capture it on a day when the sky has so much characature and mood.
My one suggestion if you could reshoot it would be to shift the horizon either slightly up or down so it sits on a horizontal third, might boost the composition more than having it dead in the middle. This doesn't detract from the shot tho in my opinion.
Definately a +fav 
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I have to agree it's very emotional the black and white really makes for a very upseting photo.
I love photos that evoke so much feeling.
Amazing James
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Brilliant composition and contrast. I love the perspective of the tracks drawing your eye right into the gateway. Very expressive photo really brings a chill to my bones.
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i love this. it has much atmosphere. you captured the sense of forboding the place must surely have.
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Very emotional and dramatic photo
I feel kind of scared...
This photo really does make you feel a whole lot of emotions.
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I love how the darkness of the sky creates such a sinister ambience, makes me wodner where those traintracks are heading.
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of course, now that I read the description I know, and duh I feel dumb.
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I love how the darkness of the sky creates such a sinister ambience, makes me wodner where those traintracks are heading.
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a classic motive haki. being almost a matter of duty for germans i was there, too. we were even standing in a gas chamber with our.. erm.. fΓΌhrer (whom we indeed had to call that due to a lack of an alternative expression in our language 
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Birkenau was dead silent, no birds or anything, just a small wind, major atmosphere. I looked at objects and could see things happening there from back then, you know? Birkenau affects you, in one way or another. You read it in books or see it on TV whatever, but when you actually GO there you can see it, but you can also FEEL it.
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This is an amazing picture/ Both the picture's atmospherics and what you describe here is mcuh what I felt upon visiting Buechenwald. Very sobering. It really makes one feel the wieght of responsiblity that humanity has to one another. Very well done.
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In my opinion this photo has the highest impact of any in your series from Auschwitz. I particularly like the distance that you chose, and the view from the railroad tracks, heavily emphasizing the analogy that Auschwitz was the end of the path for so many people. I think it is a very well-done tribute.
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thats such an incredible shot, such an infamous place and building. Those tracks are enough to make me shudder.
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beautiful - very symmetrical in framing which is always a nice feel and the clouds overhead/tones clearly enforce the mood of your subject
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