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According to Walter Benjamin, the past that is not recognized by the present threatens to disappear irretrievably. As a consequence, photographs cannot save the moment from oblivion by pure depiction alone, but only by keeping the depicted moment actual at every present moment.
Instead of counting on the documentary quality of photography that speaks in the past tense of "what has been", Silke Helmerdig suggests a different approach to photography: an extension of a future subjunctive (photographic) tense speaking of "what could be, if", allowing one to think possible futures instead of harking back to the past.
Frontmatter 1
Contents 5
Introduction. "After Auschwitz" - photography and the principle of hope 7
Chapter 1. Photography and historiography 23
Chapter 2. Post-War Germany and its remembrance of the Holocaust 79
Chapter 3. The representation of absence in photography 137
Chapter 4: Epilogue. Photography: A future subjunctive for the past 185
Bibliography 195
Acknowledgements 205