Page 74 - Centrum Dialogu im. Marka Edelmana w Łodzi. Time of the Litzmannstadt Ghetto. Film images.

A still from Photographer leaflet. Director Dariusz Jabłoński proposes a reading
[Fotoamator] method of the film based on patient search for what es-
directed by Dariusz Jabłoński,
1998 – courtesy caped the photographer’s control.
of Apple Film Production A camera slowly zooming in on a woman’s face
(close-up of her eyes) creates the effect of her looking
at the viewer. It evokes a subconscious anxiety, all the
more so because her gaze reaches out to us, but at the
same time she is trying to hide from us. The audience
may perceive the fear in her eyes as a fear of them. This
image serves as a means of developing a fictitious, non-
simultaneous relationship, thus creating an effective
event, which – despite its being created by the film – is
not ethically neutral. The camera zoom is transformed
into the ‘meaningful’ gaze of the victim from within the
frame, which ‘identifies’ a potential viewer with the po-
sition and sight of the one who took the picture. Her
gaze identifies the viewer of ‘now’ with the photographer
who looked at her ‘then’. Such perception provoked by
the camera work goes beyond things which can be in-
cluded in a purely visual order – it is a ‘visual performa-
tive’ aimed at provoking the audience’s emotions,
stimulating their imaginations, which aims to help them
empathize. Since in our imagination and emotions we

72 Tomasz Majewski