Black and White Forest: Two Journeys to Treblinka

The day I arrived in Treblinka was a beautiful day. I left the monument area and headed for the surrounding woods.
searching for a way to see what the beauty of the site concealed.

I was lured by the magic of the forest and light. I knew that this pastoral beauty concealed an atrocious truth.
When one arrives in Treblinka, the view of the place fails to deliver its innate promise. To all appearances,

there's nothing there but stones and trees.
But the stone is life, being, presence, and the forest is the monument and memory.

The forest in the photographs is an intermediate state: it may appear or disappear, like an elusive memory,
like an image which starts to appear in the developer tray in the dark room.

If we are impatient, we will end up with nothing but a white image devoid of detail;
if we leave it there and walk away, the image will grow blacker and denser and darkness will swallow everything up.