Today, I made the image that will appear on the first page of my book (I think). The image shows the original steps of the Seligenstadt synagogue. These steps are the only thing left of the synagogue. It was burned on November 9/10, 1938 during Kristallnacht. If you think about the metaphor of stairs (especially ascending/descending) you'll get where I'm going with this.
The emptiness is what moves me the most when I'm making photographs where the mighty, vibrant synagogues once stood in these small villages. I'm almost trying to photograph what isn't there. It's very difficult to do. It's also very sad.
A friend from Berlin, Jan, met us in Seligenstadt this morning. His mother lives there and his step-father has done an enormous amount of research on the Jewish community (that was) in Seligenstadt.
After making a positive image and a negative image of the same scene (the steps), we (Summer, Jan and I) went for coffee and looked at the "stumbling stones" around the village. There was a significant Jewish community that lived in this village until 1938. It's the same story in all of these places. Jan had newspaper clippings from the Seligenstadt newspaper (from 1935) that showed a page of ads for office furniture, shoes and clothes, and in the middle of these "common ads" was another kind of ad that read, "The Jews are our misfortune" ("Die Juden sind unser Unglück"). Mind-blowing and very educational.
The last two images are the positive (8x10 Black Glass Ambrotype) and the negative (8x10). I'll make a POP print this week of of the negative.
Seligenstadt Synagogue Remains 
I wasn't sure about the light, being in a hole and surrounded with "red" and "yellow". 
"Where does the shadow of my hand fall?" 1100 hours, 4 second exposure. 
Pouring Collodion on an 8"x10" piece of black glass. 
Putting the "loaded" plate holder onto the camera. 
Processing the plate.
"Seligenstadt Synagogue Stairs" 8"x10" Black Glass Ambrotype (sold) 
8"x10" negative - Seligenstadt Synagogue Stairs.
I'm going back to Seligenstadt next week. We're suppose to have a key to get into the Juden Friedhof (Jewish cemetery) - it was vandalized during Kristallnacht as well. Look for those images next week!
Thank you Summer and Jan. It was a great day. This is very important work, thanks for being a part of it.