Page 75 - Centrum Dialogu im. Marka Edelmana w Łodzi. Time of the Litzmannstadt Ghetto. Film images.

A still from Photographer are transferred to that place, we look at things from the
[Fotoamator] viewpoint of the figures pictured on the screen – that is
directed by Dariusz Jabłoński, why I find it well-grounded to write about a quasi-fic-
1998 – courtesy
of Apple Film Production tional character in films like Fotoamator, which at
the same time belong to the domain of non-fiction
cinema.
At this point, it is worthwhile giving some thought to
whether the title, Photographer [Fotoamator] is not con-
fusing. There are many arguments in favour of the hy-
pothesis that the series of colour slides used in the film
was not made as a private or amateur undertaking. The
very cost of colour negative film was high, and Ge-
newein’s correspondence with IG Farben quoted in the
film gives several clues that the slides were taken for
official purposes - to confirm the production efficiency
of the ghetto and illustrate the managing skills of the
German administration of the ghetto (Gettoverwaltung)
to the Nazi authorities. It would surely be possible to
structure the narrative differently than Jabłoński did: to-
wards a stronger focus on the staged character of the
photographs, which were rather unlikely to have been
taken without Hans Biebow’s (the manager of the Get-
toverwaltung) remarks on location choices and direc-

Litzmannstadt Ghetto – Affective Memory, Photography and Music 73