Mauthausen in UV

[StephanN]

In the city of Mauthausen there was the largest concentration camp on Austrian soil during the Nazi regime (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauthausen_concentration_camp). All Soul's Day would have been a fitting date to visit it, but I don't have time tomorrow, so I went today.

 

I did not have time to take photos of the many memorials outside of the compound or the infamous quarry (see first photo on the right here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extermination_through_labour ), so I will go back there, but not too soon; the place really gets to you.

 

The morning fog would have made for an eerie mood also with VIS-photos, but I do believe that UV adds to the sombre atmosphere, especially with the usual dark grass and foliage.

 

Camera: Canon EOS 6D, converted to b/w, internal X330C-filter, external S8612

Lens: Soligor 21mm f/3.8

[Cadmium]

Stephan, Excellent UV photos!

[dabateman]

Great tone.

If you didn't mention where it was I would think a US or Canadian government/military installation. Kinda reminds me of one of my old work places.

[Stefano]

B&W UV is similar to B&W VIS, and probably (B&W) film was sensitive enough to UV and picked up some of it, so your images are similar to old film ones. That place looks desolated, cold, I guess you can not make it look warm and comfortable, especially when you know the story behind it.

[colinbm]

Excellent photos Stephan

How can people deny this ever happened.... :-(

[StephanN]

Thanks, everyone.

 

I've been there about 2 years ago to take VIS-photos: http://www.photo-chameleon.com/?phort_post=mauthausen , and I simply had to convert them into b/w as it would have felt wrong to leave the colours, it's such a depressing place (among these photos are one of the thick books with the names of all the people who were murdered there and the handle which operated the gallows, so grim). This time around I did consider taking the IR-camera, but having colourful foliage would not have been ok for me so I left it at home.

 

B&W UV is similar to B&W VIS, and probably (B&W) film was sensitive enough to UV and picked up some of it, so your images are similar to old film ones. That place looks desolated, cold, I guess you can not make it look warm and comfortable, especially when you know the story behind it.

 

There are some marked differences to VIS, for example the baracks are in light green with white window frames, and, of course, surfaces look much more rugged, so UV is more dreary and fitting for this place (yes, I agree, older photos sometimes do look a lot like UV). I did make a point to arrive at the opening time, hoping to take some images without other visitors, and it worked out, but I guess that with the tripod and the longer exposure time they would not have been visible. However, being alone in a place like this with the morning fog, is no happy experience

 

How can people deny this ever happened.... :-(

 

I have no idea, but I'm more terrified of those who claim that the Nazis were on the right track killing all the Jews, communists, etc. and just didn't finish the job properly. Collective madness is on the rise again all over the world, fuelled either by religion or the belief in the strong, mighty leader or whatever. There have been concentration camps before and after the Nazis (do you remember the Boer war in South-Africa and the Soviet Gulags amongst others https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment ?) and humanity is able to produce the most sublime things as well as the most horrendous ones. And no country, however "developed" it is, is safe, I mean, nobody would expect democrazy as we call it in a country like China or Russia, but those populists in Europe, South America and the USA, together with the religious fanatics, give me the creeps and make me sort of hope for a comet to wipe the slate clean.

 

Enough of that gloomy lookout, sorry about that

[nfoto]

These images are necessary as reminders of the atrocities mankind has generated.. Whether they are "better" in UV instead of in other spectral ranges is moot compared to the horrible history they document.