Photo: Father Thinking about Son before Studio Portrait
“By looking at these sacred last photos carried into the bowels of Auschwitz-Birkenau, we see the most intimate view of who these people were, who they loved, and what mattered most to them." Ann Weiss, The Last Album: Eyes from the Ashes of Auschwitz-Birkenau Before the picture was taken he had no idea it would end up folded into a fraction of its size to fit behind his back teeth. He didn’t think about the creases or that his shoes, his ankles and part of his leg would be missing from the picture one day. Instead, he was thinking about hanging the portrait above the stove in the kitchen next to the painting of the wild roses, and about his youngest son whose right hand is too small for his body. The photographer says: Okay, now tuck his hand inside your jacket pocket. It begins this way, the father thinks as he takes his son’s hand before the picture is taken; like the wild roses in the painting above the stove in the kitchen, growing under a wide range of conditions, except extremes.