Sunday 20 February 2011

Numbered


Numbered Counterfeit!
Numbers, this turned out to be a far deeper prompt then perhaps was intended but there you have it!  Numbers they are something that surround us and are everywhere and each mean something to every single one of us like.....

Minus 4 - Hell
One
Chinese lucky number
The stack of odds or evens in a game
Sometimes the numbers can be stacked in a way that is very alien to us


One set of numbers this week stood out for me however.  Meet Joseph who I watched in a documentary art piece by Artur Zmijewski although I took a different slant apparently to the translation given because I speak Polish and was watching the mannerisms of Joseph whilst listening to what he was saying and not that of the narrator or of the Polish to English translation and only realised this when I chatted to one of the staff who had seen it and had come away with a different account because she could only understand it from reading the narrator's account - strange I thought that we went away with different takes of what Joseph was saying.  

Joseph a survivor
Joseph survived Auschwitz and is very proud of the numbers that are tattooed on his arms.  For him they are a monument to what he experienced.  He was not Jewish and therefore finding himself there came as an even bigger shock.  His crime, being Polish - just as absurd as everyone else who were placed in these camps.


The numbers to him are beautiful, they are a reminder that he survived. They have been on him for over 61 years and on the documentary film I saw he was having them "refurbished" which made me laugh because it was his way of conveying that the numbers were a monument to what he experienced and what happened.  Strange to him however was having them "renovated" and as the tattoo was being reapplied he sat in the chair like a Veteran on Remembrance Sunday.

Monument in need of refurbishment
He was rightly proud to have survived and to show that his numbers defied expectations and having survived, they too were a monument to all those people who were denied, died, survived, fought, cried and lied.

Refurbished Monument

80064

I have done canned foods, stacked and numbers so the other prompts for Scavenger Hunt were music and chocolate, so lets cheer things up a bit and have some disco!



Chocolate finger made me laugh earlier in the week, so I decided to do some more, and I have done a whole series which I will share another day but for now here is a taster (chocolate finger, taster, yes lame!)....


Temptation

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

    5 comments:

    1. What a touching 'numbers' story! And, love the 'temptation'...I might just have to copy that idea for my Tema52 'temptation' prompt ;D. Beautiful and original photos as usual <3

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    2. Thanks for sharing the story along with your numbers photos. Very inspiring. I enjoyed how you found numbers in random places.

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    3. interesting photos. Touching numbers story too.

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    4. Your story this week behind numbers was very touching - wow. Great photos.

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    5. Thank you for leaving me a note. I am glad you liked these images and that the pictures of Joseph touched you the way they did me.

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