I have been to Dachau concentration camp outside of Munich, Germany on two occasions. The first time I went was in 2012 and I took some historical images with me in order to match a few locations of where I was standing to the historical image. I recently returned to the memorial site in July of 2016 with another set of images to shoot.
Basically, I search for the correct landmarks or physical structures shown in the historical image. Then, with a lot of experimenting and errors, I shoot until I line up perfectly where they original photo was taken. Later, I edit them together in Photoshop by overlaying and resizing the historical image to match the current photo that I took. The whole process takes anywhere from 1-4 hours per photo depending on how hard it is to find the location, review the outcome, potentially re-shoot, and then edit the final product.
I am doing this project for a number of reasons, but the most important is to continue to share and learn from the legacy of the horrors of the second world war and the realities of life under the rule of Nazism. For me, it is important to continue to try finding new ways to make these lessons from history relevant. I believe that by recapturing these images from their original locations and sharing with others, we may be able to show that there is indeed a living history in the world around us that we can make a tangible connection with if we only look hard enough.
More info: imgur.com
Oven
Showers
Pile
Workers
Dragging
Gate
