Ben Altman

  • Introduction
  • About/Contact
  • NEW
    • I Own This Stolen Land
  • INTRACTABLE HISTORIES
    • The More That Is Taken Away
    • Site/Sight
    • Seeing Memorials
    • Guantanámo Basement
    • Which Side Are You On
  • INVISIBLE HISTORIES
    • The Empty Centre
    • An Expatriate's Views
  • PLACE AND TIME
    • Memory Mechanism
    • Portraits/Interviews

Site/Sight

Tourists at iconic sights almost automatically take photographs. This act becomes more complicated at memorials, sites, and museums that commemorate episodes of mass violence. I have photographed visitors and their screens at many such places. The people in my images are strangers who are mostly unaware of my intention, even though I use a hand-held 1940’s 4x5 press camera. My vintage equipment fits well with thinking about the present in terms of the past.

Site/Sight (c) Ben 2020 Altman. All Rights Reserved

Entrance, Auschwitz II-Birkenau Death Camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau State Memorial and Museum. Republic of Poland

Raising a device between oneself and a site of atrocity can be seen as distancing and reductive. However an impulse to manage and diffuse what these places mean is understandable and perhaps necessary.

Site/Sight (c) Ben 2020 Altman. All Rights Reserved

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. Berlin, Federal Republic of Germany

Often the memorials themselves depict the appalling, chaotic events they represent with unwarranted coherence or with the blankness of preserved artifacts. They invite engagement but also obstruct it.

Site/Sight (c) Ben 2020 Altman. All Rights Reserved

Srebrebnica-Potocari Memorial and Cemetery for the Victims of the 1995 Genocide. Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina

The memorials and the photography each suggest questions: how to see these sites; how to empathize with the unknowable experiences of the people who were caught up in the events; how to understand the ways in which past horrors configure our present world; how to live with our knowledge.

Site/Sight (c) Ben 2020 Altman. All Rights Reserved

Eternal Flame Memorial to the Victims of World War II from Sarajevo. Sarajevo, Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina

The images are printed large - 22 x 28 inches - rendering hands, screen images, and screen icons close to life size.

Site/Sight (c) Ben 2020 Altman. All Rights Reserved

Peace Park and Goddess of Peace Statue, Memorial Hall to the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre (Rape of Nanking). Nanjing, People’s Republic of China

Site/Sight (c) Ben 2020 Altman. All Rights Reserved

Interrogation Cell at S21 Tuol Sleng Prison and Torture Center. Phnom Penh, Kingdom of Cambodia

Site/Sight (c) Ben 2020 Altman. All Rights Reserved

Memorial and Place of Meditation upon the Martyrdom of 65,000 Polish Citizens of Jewish Nationality from Cracow. Kasimierz, Republic of Poland

Site/Sight (c) Ben 2020 Altman. All Rights Reserved

Site of Former Body-Burning Pit. Treblinka II Death Camp, Republic of Poland

Site/Sight (c) Ben 2020 Altman. All Rights Reserved

Auschwitz I Concentration Camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau State Memorial and Museum. Oświęcim, Republic of Poland

Site/Sight (c) Ben 2020 Altman. All Rights Reserved

Gas Chamber, Majdanek Concetration Camp. Majdanek State Museum, Lublin, Republic of Poland

Site/Sight (c) Ben 2020 Altman. All Rights Reserved

Execution Posts, Breendonk Fortress Concentration Camp, Kingdom of Belgium

Site/Sight (c) Ben 2020 Altman. All Rights Reserved

Guard Tower, Majdanek Concetration Camp. Majdanek State Museum, Lublin, Republic of Poland

Site/Sight (c) Ben 2020 Altman. All Rights Reserved

Memorial Plaques on Crematorium Wall. Chełmno Death Camp Forest Site. Chełmno nad Varem, Republic of Poland

Site/Sight (c) Ben 2020 Altman. All Rights Reserved

Stairway of Death. The Quarry, Mauthausen Concentration Camp, Austria


Site/Sight (c) Ben 2020 Altman. All Rights Reserved

Czech National Cemetery, Theresienstadt Concentration Camp Small Fortress. Terezin, Czech Republic

Site/Sight (c) Ben 2020 Altman. All Rights Reserved

Ryozen Kannon Memorial to the Dead of the Pacific War. Kyoto, Japan.

Site/Sight (c) Ben 2020 Altman. All Rights Reserved

Tree Used for Smashing Children's Heads, Cheoung Ek Killing Fields. Phnom Penh, Kingdom of Cambodia

Site/Sight (c) Ben 2020 Altman. All Rights Reserved

Cenotaph for the Atomic Bomb Victims, Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. Hiroshima, Japan

Site/Sight (c) Ben 2020 Altman. All Rights Reserved

Oklahoma City National Memorial. Oklahoma City, United States of America

Site/Sight (c) Ben 2020 Altman. All Rights Reserved

National September 11 Memorial and Museum. New York, United States of America

Site/Sight (c) Ben 2020 Altman. All Rights Reserved

"Hot Box" Iron Jail, Whitney Museum of Slavery. Louisiana, United States of America

Site/Sight (c) Ben 2020 Altman. All Rights Reserved

Columbine School Shooting Memorial. Littleton, Colorado, United States of America

Site/Sight (c) Ben 2020 Altman. All Rights Reserved

Massacre Memorial. Wounded Knee, S. Dakota, United States of America

Site/Sight (c) Ben 2020 Altman. All Rights Reserved

Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme. Picardy, Republic of France

Site/Sight (c) Ben 2020 Altman. All Rights Reserved

WWI Cemetery for German Soldiers. Neuville St. Vaast, Kingdom of Belgium

Site/Sight (c) Ben 2020 Altman. All Rights Reserved

Canadian National Vimy Memorial. Vimy Ridge, Near Arras, Republic of France. 2015

Site/Sight (c) Ben 2020 Altman. All Rights Reserved

The Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy, Republic of France 

Site/Sight (c) Ben 2020 Altman. All Rights Reserved

German Soldiers Cemetery, La Cambe, Normandy, Republic of France

Site/Sight (c) Ben 2020 Altman. All Rights Reserved

Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Washington DC, United States of America