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A review by therightprofile
The Photographer of Mauthausen by Salva Rubio
4.0
Graphic novels can be used to incredible effect, especially with laying out stories that may have otherwise go unheard. Moreover, its the type of medium where you can take in a panel for an infinite amount of time, as a way to stop it.
I had never heard of the Spanish photographer Francisco Boix or the Mauthausen concentration camp before, until now. This is a semi-factual account about the life and death in the camp as well as the incredible feat, he partook in, of stealing negatives of photos taken by the Nazis that were later used as evidence to expose the atrocities there.
The artists never shy away from displaying the horror and hardships lived there. The art is very intricate with deep, stark lines and dark, pale colours. The narrator's POV helps with immersion into that world and yet, as it is said later, I won't know what it was really like as I didn't live through the atrocities. There are many questions raised here, about doing the right thing and persistence to fight for a greater good with high risk when your life can be numbered at any time, and what happens when something you have fought for so hard is negligible in someone else's eyes. Worst of all, your mere survival suggests to them that you were a collaborator.
I would have appreciated a note regarding what parts of the novel were embellished. As the author mentions in the foreword and I could see for myself, even those freed may not have lived to tell us their story.
I had never heard of the Spanish photographer Francisco Boix or the Mauthausen concentration camp before, until now. This is a semi-factual account about the life and death in the camp as well as the incredible feat, he partook in, of stealing negatives of photos taken by the Nazis that were later used as evidence to expose the atrocities there.
The artists never shy away from displaying the horror and hardships lived there. The art is very intricate with deep, stark lines and dark, pale colours. The narrator's POV helps with immersion into that world and yet, as it is said later, I won't know what it was really like as I didn't live through the atrocities. There are many questions raised here, about doing the right thing and persistence to fight for a greater good with high risk when your life can be numbered at any time, and what happens when something you have fought for so hard is negligible in someone else's eyes. Worst of all, your mere survival suggests to them that you were a collaborator.
I would have appreciated a note regarding what parts of the novel were embellished. As the author mentions in the foreword and I could see for myself, even those freed may not have lived to tell us their story.