On June 10th, 1944, the French village of Oradour-sur-Glane was massacred by the Das Reich division of the SS. Women and children were burned alive inside a church. Men were led into barns and shot. Then the whole village was set ablaze. The victims numbered 642. At the end of the war, French authorities decided to preserve the ruins, “in the best possible state of destruction.” The few remaining survivors built a new Oradour not far from the old one.
To produce this work, Charles Borrett used a pinhole camera for its ties to early photography. The pinhole camera has neither lens nor aperture. Only a single pinhole sheds light directly onto the film. By abolishing time and space, these straightforward photos of the village ruins and reconstruction become gateways to remembrance and reflection.
BOOK
Oradour-s d’un village à l’autre
Charles Borrett
Editions Mazeto Square
Format 15 x 21 cm, 64 pages, b&w
Price : 12 €
ISBN : 978-2-919229-04-8
