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Historical Reenactment in Photography: Familiarizing with the Otherness of the Past?
the items needed to re-create such an image: uniforms, weapons, eguipment. Most
of the photographs are, nonetheless, made in a “style” of WWII photos. Photog¬
raphers experiment with visual language, they refer to original war pictures, and
“quote” them in their work.
However, John Berger points out that the language of photography is a language
of events (Berger 1980: 293). In the presented case it is worth noting that reenacted
photos generally should not speak the language of the reenacted event but of the
war itself. In this sense reenacted photography remains in some opposition to art
that focuses on representing war which, as Katarzyna Bojarska states, “does not
rest on situating events, giving icons, but on eliminating the present boundary be¬
tween an event and its “established” images, feelings, memories and even results”
(2013: 9). Reenactment photography, on the contrary, works through icons and
established images of war, although it still tries to evoke reflections and emotions.
Therefore, other reflections concerning visual art devoted to war are also valid
for re-enactment of photography. Drawing on a reflection of Bojarska (Ibid.: 10¬
11), contemporary images are statements about the past not only because they pre¬
sent its images but because they evoke emotions directed towards history. I believe
this is exactly the objective of reenacting photography: to speak about the past by
re-creating its ambience, the details that have to be recognized in a contemporary
context as the essence of war,' and, at the same time, to speak through experiences
triggered by looking at those images. For reenactors those emotions are strong.
Although historical reenactment is their hobby and a way of spending leisure time,
they are aware of the horrors of war, of the daily suffering and brutality during that
time. They empathize mostly with soldiers, since in the Second World War reenact¬
ment the military aspect is the most developed one, but they also sometimes depict
and reflect on the fate of civilians who also were influenced by the extreme cruelty
of the war. One of the photographers I talked with tried to explain difficulties with
reflecting upon tragedy of war.
I started to wonder how far can I go, is it ethical at all. I don’t want to laugh at
dead, I dont, this is too serious and I don’t want to laugh at the fallen, I dont,
Fm full of respect for them. But I also know that I should make those pictures,
because it is an only way to move someone. And although I separate myself
from this reality—I have lenses, they separate me from it, I won't go crazy
because of those emotions, because I have to leave a sign (Photographer, male,
age 25, Labiszyn, 2015).
° All translations from Polish literature are mine: K. Baraniecka-Olszewska.
10 Here I refer to the conviction that representation evoking authentic experience should contain an
essence of the represented (see Reisinger & Steiner 2006: 74).
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