Bleached wood, a photo from Limousin, Central

Photographer's Note

This is the 1st of a short series of shots taken in the small town of Oradour-sur-Glane. On the 10th of June 1944 soldiers of the Der F�hrer Regiment of the 2nd Waffen-SS Panzer Division Das Reich marched into the town and killed a total of 642 men, women and children. The town has been left to slowly decay as both a memorial to the dead and a reminder of what lays just below the surface of our civilisation.
I kept things simple using just my 12-24mm and my old soft 20mm Nikkor.

eleparc, greg, Philippe, branley, robiuk, stefi has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

ben4321 (9875) 2006-07-03 16:54

I think this is really good. Even before I read your note, I was drawn to the texture of the wood and the stone wall and the feeling of dereliction and decay.
There's a great range of tones in this black and white image, it almost has the feel of a shot captured on B&W film (minus the grain).
Good work
Ben
ps. Maybe you didn't notice, but there are quite a few dust spots visible in the sky. I'm suffering from the same problem myself at the moment, its a pain.

eleparc (24063) 2006-07-03 17:17

i was going to make a joke about how much it looked like the far west, but reading the name of the village, i could no longer joke about this place! My mother used to know a girl at school who perished burnt alive inside the church...So it has a familiar sound... your photo is spectacular and the historical reference is chilling!

Eric

BrianGraney (1740) 2006-07-03 17:18

Great photograph.
The textures are good as Ben says, and I also like the shapes and light inside the wooden box.
Good composition and note makes this a worthy upload!
I'd be interested to see the colour version of this as well....
Thanks
Brian

kensimage (8563) 2006-07-04 13:20

Beautiful black and white, Richard--you brought out the textures really well, especially in the wood. The feeling of emptiness and abandonment is clear, too, with the road of unknown destination empty of people. It's good this sort of place is kept as a reminder. Regards, Ken.

weiphoto (353) 2006-07-04 20:55

I enjoy the tonality of the picture. Really got the textures of the scene. Too bad there's such an awful history behind the town.

cgrindahl (6113) 2006-07-05 3:30

You certainly capture the starkness of this scene with this point of view Richard, hard up against a wall with a cramped view of what appears to be a fuse box at the right and a rather barren vista to the left with more modern power poles extending into the distance. Fine clarity and tonal range that gives us the texture of the wood as well as the gravel at the edge of the road. My eye is drawn to the sliver of sunlight above the box highlighting the edge of the pole. I would like to see a bit more of that, but I can't quite explain why. Perhaps the sunlight so vividly present gives life to an otherwise rather lifeless scene, especially so with your note. Nice to see you work appear from time to time.

gata (0) 2006-07-05 8:15

Simple, pero ah� est� lo bueno.

Philippe (11836) 2006-10-05 9:45

Hello, Richard. The picture is very sharp and allows us to see this box is quite weathered. Here time has stood still for ages as you can see from the electrical wire hanging loose from the box. I like the perspective you've created which seems to lead to a dead end.

branley (3681) 2006-10-10 9:04

Hi Richard,

I'm not into B&W, my son (lukasson) is but even so the subject matter is brilliant with the telegraph poles and the road running away on the left and the old electricity box (I presume) being your main subject. The textures in your image are really superb. Well done.

Regards

Stephen

robiuk (10807) 2008-01-30 13:43

Lovely one, Richard.
I like the treatment of your b/w, it's so
tasty as both the composition and the subject.
Pity there's no more photos like this on on TE!
Cheers,
Robi

stefi (1230) 2008-05-22 13:37

Hi Richard, a shot that comes out from the past. It could have been caught in the 1944, and perfectly makes my imagination run with the note.
TFS
Stefano