The Challenge: Create a 12-page photo book based on a "journey" – literal or metaphoric.
Stage One: Selecting Poland.
I've been lucky to travel to some exotic places and go on some paradise vacations. None, however, has been a journey in its truest sense; that is, until I traveled to Poland.
My great-grandmother's family lived in a small Polish village in the early 20th century. Most of her family was killed in World War II at the hands of the Nazis.
Travelling back to the country my family came from was at once foreign and a homecoming. I felt simultaneously closer to my roots than ever, and more distant from my family than I've ever been.
The trip was emotional, dark, and painful. Unanswered questions trailed along behind our tour bus, and my faith splintered as I faced the most terrible and unfathomable destruction. This trip was the unfolding of a story, an excursion down memory lane, a journey through history--both global and personal history. And the emotional journey was an experience in and of itself.
Stage Two: Selecting Text
"There are no words to describe" feels cliche. But never have I been at such a loss for words.
Oh, I had plenty of angry rants and painful sobs, numb murmurs and impassioned monologues. But none that could reflect the entirety of my emotional journey. The journal I kept seemed wholly inadequate to meet the demands of summing up in a 12-page photo book the spectrum of human emotion that I experienced on my trip.
Evil. Innocence. Suffering. Comfort. Captivity. Freedom. Faith.
It is these themes, and so many others, that were the trail markers of my journey back to my roots, my family, my once-home.
I located verses in the Bible to reflect these themes, to at once highlight Faith in this dark period, and condemn the absence of a Higher Power in the face of such evil. How fitting and how ironic to include the Bible in this story book. But the tension and opposition characterized the experience more than anything: exploring the past while existing in the present, and looking towards the future to rebuild what was broken.
Ultimately, my journey, and my book, culminates in the promise of faith and redemption, and the lighting of a candle to remember all that was lost.
