Jason Schwartz began work on "The Ghosts That Haunt Us: Portraits of Holocaust Survivors" in 1991, while still a student at York. Six years later, he had interviewed more than 65 people from many countries, including Canada, the United States, Holland, Germany, France and Israel. The result is a collection of black and white portraits of death camp survivors, as well as their handwritten statements.
For Schwartz (BFA'92), the photos came out of a personal connection. (He had an uncle who was a camp survivor.) "It was in my fourth year at York. I did a portrait of him and it was really powerful. The idea took off from there.
"I understood at the time that these people had experienced and seen something most of us rarely would have a chance to....They were at the brink and came back.
"I wanted to create portraits that I hoped would prompt viewers to take an interest in survivors and their stories. The idea of including statements really made the project come together. It was actually a suggestion by a York photography professor.
"The theme is dark, and some of the pictures perhaps make the people seem dark. But they do have their lighter side. I know they were pleased someone as young as me came along and did this. It meant we hadn't forgot."
