Sobibor Memorial and Museum – architecture, silence, and remembrance
In 2024, architect Piotr Michalewicz, founder of Michalewicz & Co, invited me to photograph the Sobibor Memorial and Museum. The site commemorates the victims of the German extermination camp where approximately 180,000 people were murdered during the Second World War. From the outset, it was clear that this would be a project requiring a different pace and a heightened level of sensitivity than a typical architectural assignment. The architectural concept transforms the former site of atrocity into a cemetery, establishing a clear and ethical boundary between spaces of memory and areas accessible to visitors. Rather than reconstructing or staging history, the design relies on abstraction, restraint, and distance. The central elements of the memorial are the clearing of mass graves and the Wall of Memory, which traces the path of the victims. While photographing the site, I focused on the relationship between architecture and the surrounding forest, on the rhythm of concrete and stone, and on the way light filters through the trees. The project deliberately leaves space for silence and reflection. The photographic session included exterior images taken at different times of day, interior photographs of the museum, and aerial views that allowed the entire composition to be seen within its natural context.
Further projects – architecture of memory and ritual
In the following months, I also had the opportunity to photograph other projects by Michalewicz & Co, similarly connected to themes of memory and public function. One of them was the Funeral House in Żyrardów, where restrained and carefully composed architecture accompanies the rituals of farewell. Another important assignment was documenting the revitalisation of the Ukrainian Military Cemetery in Kalisz, the burial place of Ukrainian soldiers who fought in the Polish–Soviet War. The project in Kalisz aimed to restore the cemetery’s original character as a military necropolis, based on its historical layout from the 1920s. New steel crosses, markers, a reconstructed monument, and a reordered spatial structure create a clear and dignified place of remembrance. While photographing the cemetery, I focused on the rhythm of repeated elements, the relationship between architecture and greenery, and the material order that restores clarity and respect to the site.
Each of these commissions was realised as a complete photographic report, including daytime and evening images, drone photography, and detailed views. Working with Michalewicz & Co once again showed how architectural photography can serve not only as documentation, but also as a way of recording spaces that carry historical weight and collective memory.
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