Marc Wilson: A Wounded Landscape

Bearing Witness to the Holocaust

A Wounded Landscape: Bearing Witness to the Holocaust, is a poignant reminder of the atrocities committed by the Nazis and their collaborators across a vast and varied landscape, where persecution often began in the places people called home.

Between 1939 and 1945, the Third Reich systematically murdered almost six million Jews and countless others they deemed racially inferior or targeted for ideological and political reasons, from nearly 40,000 sites across Europe. This included Roma, homosexuals, the mentally and physically impaired, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Communists, and over three million Soviet prisoners of war.

Instigated by his own family history experienced during the Holocaust, photographer Marc Wilson embarked on a profound six-year journey from 2015 to 2021, documenting 130 locations across 20 countries. He has captured the physical remnants of the Holocaust and intertwined them with the deeply personal stories of 22 survivors, those who were killed and their descendants.

While some images in the exhibition show Dachau, Belsen, and Auschwitz, which are recognised worldwide, Wilson has also captured numerous other sites of atrocity within cities, towns, villages, fields, and forests whose terrible history has faded from public consciousness. These are places where life-or-death decisions were made, but they also hold stories of hope, survival, and memory.

A Wounded Landscape is a powerful testament to the indomitable resilience of the human spirit and serves as a compelling call to never forget the horrors of the past.

A SIDE Gallery touring exhibition.

Image: Volary, Czech Republic, 2018 © Marc Wilson

Photographer

Marc Wilson

(B. 1968, London) Marc Wilson’s studies took him from Sociology to Photography, and he has been taking photographs ever since. His images document the memories, histories and stories set in the landscapes surrounding us. Wilson works on long-term documentary projects. They include 'The Last Stand', 2010-2014, and 'A Wounded Landscape: Bearing Witness to the Holocaust', 2015-2021. He has published four photobooks to date. Solo exhibitions include those at Side Gallery, The Royal Armouries Museum, Focal Point Gallery (UK), and Spazio Klien (Italy). Group shows include those at The Photographers Gallery and the Association of Photographers Gallery, London, and internationally at Athens Photo Festival, and Tel Aviv Museum of Art. His work has been published in numerous journals and magazines, from National Geographic and The British Journal of Photography and Raw Magazine to Wired and Dezeen. www.marcwilson.co.uk

Our visitors say...

”A superb exhibition, and what commitment from Marc Wilson to stay with such a difficult topic. The portraits are very revealing of the lives of people, with roots in the old world and shoots in the new.”

”A very necessary exhibition. These stories need to be told, always. The photos of the people, and their stories, are so personal. So good of them to share them. Thank you for this.”

Marc Wilson: A Wounded Landscape

A fully illustrated hard back publication accompanies the exhibition. Published by two&two press, 2021, this 738 page book contains over 350 photographs, the 22 story texts, captions and maps.

It was shortlisted for Lucie Photobook Prize - 2022

“This book is remarkable.” Ben Barkow

Available to buy for £57 from Impressions Gallery bookshop.

Buy here