Haleigh Youtie
This photo was taken by me at the former concentration camp of Auschwitz in Poland during the March of the Living. The March of the Living is an incredible event where Jews from all over the world congregate together to march from Birkenau to Auschwitz, which was referred to as the death march during the Holocaust. This photo depicts the ceremony that took place after the march. This is when speeches are given about Jewish pride and the fact that Hitler did not accomplish his goal of exterminating the Jewish race. The stream of blue jackets and the Israeli flags that surround the former death camp evokes a sense of Jewish pride and a remembrance for the 6 million lives that were lost. Where our ancestors were once sent to die, we now thrive and conquer. The desolate leafless trees and the guard towers that can be spotted in the back evoke a sense of hopelessness that makes the photo even more powerful due to the fact that Jews were able to survive. The thousands of Jews in this represent not only the Jewish race as a whole, but they also represent their grandparents and great grandparents that were able to survive this tragic event in history. The March of the Living was an amazing and life changing experience for me because it opened my eyes to what willpower can accomplish. I now know, much like all of the Jews in this photograph, that the Jewish race will be able to survive persecution no matter what.
When you have taken the photo, it is appropriate to use the first person in discussing it (and you should give credit to yourself under the photo, along with a title for the photo). The blog title is a bit too generic. I think if you had reflected more on your own emotions that inspired you to take the photo, and then on what you see in the photo itself now that you’re removed from the event, you might have produced a narrative with more tension. What you’ve written blurs the distinction between the moment of taking the photo, what the photo shows (denotative) and what it connotes.