Barry Falk’s In Search of Amnesia is a culmination of five years traveling to Poland and Ukraine between 2017 and 2022. The project explores the Jewish narrative and how memory is held in places that suffered collective loss and atrocity. The title refers to a state of trauma: amnesia refers to repressed memories, searching for amnesia is akin to the process of being inextricably drawn to this deep sense of loss whilst at the same time unable to fully revisit the site of original trauma. The images presented occupy this psychological space: the push pull between the horror and the wish to rectify history.
“On the 2nd January 2017 I flew to Krakow to begin a project exploring the Jewish narrative in Poland and Ukraine. This was the start of a long term research project and begins, almost predictably, in Auschwitz, and then follows a route that shifts and changes, following leads and hunches, ideas and directions, rivers and transportation lines, dead ends and surprising synagogues. It could have been more personal: a return to specific family routes but genealogy was never my purpose.”
The book will soon be published by Kehrer Verlag, Heidelberg. These behind the scene images were taken at Nino Druck GmbH printers, in Weinstraße, Germany. Barry joined René Hanoch, image editor for Kehrer Verlag, and worked with several printers over 2 days on press. The printed sheets (12 pages of the book per sheet) will now be sent to the bookbinders, proof checked again by Kehrer, before going on sale mid January 2025.
You can visit the publisher’s Instagram page here and Barry’s website to read more about the work here