DECEMBER 2013

VISION
by Vision Explorers

Welcome to

VISION
Keeping the Spirit Alive

express a variety of difficult emotions? This may infinitely differ for different eyes of the beholder, but all can agree that art comes from the heart in order to touch the heart. If we're lucky something is presented in such a unique way as to change hearts, minds and eyes.

experience of awe and magnificence or can it also be used by the artists as another language to

Does Art always have to be beautiful? Is its only purpose to serve the audience with a joyful

presentation came from the depths of the heart to convey the heights of the spirit of those who advisors urged him to cut down on the budget allocated to the arts to divert more funding into the that have lived and died in the Nazi death camps, we dedicate this issue. have lived and died in Auschwitz Birkenau. During the Second World War Winston Churchills

That is exactly what Cole Thompson has done in his body of work Auschwitz Birkenau. This

security war efforts. Churchills answer was: Then what are we fighting for? In honor of all those

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What comes from the heart speaks to the heart - Jewish aphorism Sincerely, Joel, Sharon, Armand and Daniel The Vision Explorers Team

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Melbourne
& Great Ocean Road
May / June, 2014

In 2014 the Vision Explorers team will be heading to Australia for two exciting workshops. Well start off with 3 day a fine art architectural photography workshop in Melbourne, Australias architectural hotspot, on May 30 - June 1, 2014.

of coast line in the world. Join us for this unique photography adventure on June 6 - 8, 2014.

photography workshop along the Great Ocean Road, one of the most spectacular stretches

The following weekend well be offering a 3 day fine art seascape and landscape

visionexplorers.com/melbourne-2014

The Ghosts of

AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU
Cole Thompson

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Auschwitz No. 14 by Cole Thompson

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I would like to set the stage for telling the story of how "The came about.

this image, Auschwitz No. 14, by Ghosts of Auschwitz-Birkenau"

leave my equipment onboard, I not planned on photographing there as I thought it might be taste.

carried it with me. However I had

beginning of the tour and a

feeling of suffocation overcame needed to get out of that room and into open air, and so I going outside.

me. I am not claustrophobic, but I

sacrilegious or at least in bad

My wife and I were visiting my son who was serving in the Peace Corps in Ukraine. Because Poland and stayed in Krakow. As we planned our activities, the family voted on visiting

signalled to my family that I was

The tour started indoors and we were shown photographs and detailed descriptions of the prisoners before they were

I'm part Polish, we decided to visit

Once outside and breathing

easier, I found myself walking

murdered. I was struck by how beautiful the black and white portraits were of the prisoners, clearly the photographer was talented. But it all seemed so odd to me, why go to all that trouble about to murder? to document a person you were

very slowly and looking down at those who had walked in these very same footsteps and were now dead. I thought about the people who had walked this murdered. I wondered,

my feet. I began to wonder about

Auschwitz-Birkenau. This did not am saddened by certain

please me for I am a "sensitive." I situations and try to avoid them, and visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau was certainly one of those voted and so along I went. situations. But the family had We arrived on a tour bus and

same path and then had been metaphorically perhaps, if their spirits still lingered here? And then it hit me, I must photograph and died at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Then we visited the rooms with and hair. This was just the

because it was not safe for me to

the iconic piles of glasses, shoes

the spirits of those who had lived

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My goal was to portray AuschwitzBirkenau as a place where real people lived and died, and not just a historical place or a museum.

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I wish I could take credit for each image, but I cannot. I

carefully and thoughtfully planning arrived at the camp with no left two hours later with 16

photography). My rule of thirds states:

me that they don't follow the rules of composition. I remember one image in particular where a woman told me that it didnt

intention of photographing and I images. I saw, I felt and I created. There was no time for thinking. I instinct and then literally ran to the next location. My goal? To composed and photographed by

A great image is comprised of processing.

1/3 vision, 1/3 the shot and 1/3

follow the rule of thirds and that I shouldnt have put the horizon on the center line.

A great image begins and ends concept to describe, but I think

with your vision.!Vision is a tough each of us instinctively know how we want our image to look, and image into compliance with our vision. our job as an artist is to bring that

I marvelled that she could not see that the composition was absolutely perfect! This kind of advocate not knowing or

portray Auschwitz-Birkenau as a died, and not just a historical place or a museum.

place where real people lived and

blindness is one of the reasons I following the rules. Look, see and think for yourself. Working with always spot on; most of my Vision doesn't mean that you're images end up on the cutting

My creations are not calculated, are not a result of following that way and find that such planning actually hurts my creative process.

they are not pre-planned and they formulas or rules. I do not work

When we pursue an image with vision, then equipment and process becomes the servant and the creative process the images can occur. master. Its only then that great

room floor and the public never

sees those failures. But following trying to distill a great

your Vision is so much better than composition down to a few rules. mildly pleasing images that are

But I do have one rule that I

When I am following my Vision, I at a scene and compose it so

religiously follow and I call it a little fun at the rules of

am guided by my feelings. I look that feels right. I've had people

Those rules may create safe and suitable for a pretty calendar, but they'll never create great images that you'll love and be proud of.

"Cole's Rule of Thirds" (I'm poking

look at my images and then tell

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Auschwitz No. 1 by Cole Thompson

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Auschwitz No. 4 by Cole Thompson

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These are long exposures and I the camp as proxies for those

used the unsuspecting visitors at who had lived and died there. I

the tourists saw my camera on a tripod, they would politely move out of my way, which is exactly what I didnt want! So I quickly

I envisioned this as a very dark series with bright ghosts. I underexposed my images by

had some previous experience

with long exposures and so I was somewhat prepared for this idea. However I didn't have experience using long exposures to turn people into ghosts, and so I wasn't sure if it would work. its immediate feedback,

devised a trick to lure them back in: I would turn my back on the camera and talk on my cell phone. Then they would move back in, and using a remote the shutter. shutter release, I would trigger

about one stop to give a dark

feeling to them, and then further the scene including the skies. I then dodged up the ghosts so

burned down all distractions from

that the eye was drawn to them.

Thank goodness for digital with otherwise I could not have

But the most important element in the creation of these images was my Vision, not my long exposure technique or my

I had to take a number of images at each location because the ghosting effect is dependent someone stopped during the

created these images in two have done this with film.

hours and I certainly could not At each location I was faced with an unexpected challenge; when

upon people moving, and so if exposure, the image didnt work.

Photoshop processing skills.

Vision drove the image from start to finish: it guided the shot and directed the post-processing.

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Auschwitz No. 13 by Cole Thompson

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Most of the time, and certainly for this body of work, I instantly know how I want the image to look. For "The Ghosts of AuschwitzBirkenau" the challenge was not to find my Vision, but rather how to translate that Vision onto paper.

and only then is the Vision

possible. I strongly disagree. I think the better way to approach art is to know what you want and then to develop the skills as they are required to fulfil that Vision. are very good at the technical, This can create technically Too often we as photographers but we are weak on the Vision. perfect but soulless images.

reasons. Compositionally I think it's a good image and the rendering of the ghosts shows a lot of energy and anger. Another other reason it's a personal of the fate of the camp

favorite is because it reminds me commandant Rudolf Hoess.

I had never done work like this

before and so I had to develop possible. Many photographers

To the right of the guard tower is him after his trial, this is the

the Photoshop skills to make it believe that the skills come first,

the gallows where the Poles hung same location where he would

Auschwitz No. 14 is my favorite

image from the series for many

torture and kill camp dissidents.

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The most important element in the creation of these images was my Vision, not my long exposure technique or my Photoshop processing skills.

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