Photographing Microorganisms in Concentration Camps: An Interview with Anna Zagrodzka

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What if the most enduring witnesses to atrocity aren’t people, but the living spores quietly outlasting time? Artist Anna Zagrodzka blends science and art to show how memory thrives – and fades – at the molecular level in places scarred by genocide.

At this year’s Belfast Photo Festival in June 2025, Anna Zagrodzka’s transmedia project Alternaria Alternata combined the worlds of science and art to offer a rarely-considered and compelling perspective on the spaces and microcosms of Nazi concentration camps. The key question: how can we preserve the important memory of these extermination sites without damaging nature in the process? I was lucky enough to meet with her in person to discuss her thinking.

Agnieszka Warnke: In your project ‘Alternaria Alternata’, the visualisation you’ve made is the result of observation. How did it all originate?

[During our conversation, Anna Zagrodzka arranges visual materials on the table in front of me, describing individual photographs as she talks about the project.]

Anna Zagrodzka: I studied food technology at the Łódź University of Technology, where I attended microbiology classes. It was one of my favourite subjects. At the time, the microbiology laboratory was analysing samples from the Auschwitz camp. Infected bricks were brought in, and the task of the Global Conservation Programme was to identify the ‘enemy’ and then find disinfectants that might eliminate the mould without damaging the delicate materials from the camps. I had classes nearby and often observed what was happening there.

I found it so interesting that I also began using a microscope myself to examine the organisms living on these bricks. After the conservation programme was finished, I visited extermination sites in person, collected microbiological samples, returned to the laboratory, prepared live specimens, and then took photographs under a microscope. The photographs were taken between 2015 and 2022.

[My attention is drawn to an abstract photographic image depicting, as the author explains, a conidiophore with spores.]

From a scientific perspective, this photo is a classic shot – unlike the others, which are not very useful to microbiologists. When it came to my project, I wanted to show the different, ‘cosmic’ nature of these microorganisms and their beauty, so I made enlargements at ten-, forty- and a hundredfold magnification. I primarily focused on moulds.

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Anna Zagrodzka, 'Alternaria alternata', photo: courtesy of the artist

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[The artist shows me her notebook.]

These are notes from my first microbiological peregrination. I was investigating which of these moulds is the most expansive and exhibits the most significant biotic effect. It turned out that Alternaria alternata is the most aggressive towards other species, so that’s the name I gave to the entire project.

AW: Where did you visit?

AZ: I focused on extermination camps: Auschwitz, Auschwitz II-Birkenau, Bełżec, Gross-Rosen, Kulmhof, Majdanek, Sobibór, Stutthof, Płaszów and Treblinka. I conducted queries and examined albums filled with conservation analyses of the buildings that are still standing on the camps’ grounds. These environmental histories of extermination were written by Prof. Ewa Domańska and Dr Jacek Małczyński, and Paweł Szypulski created a project about postcards from Auschwitz showing how the visual representation of the place has changed. It’s interesting how the approach to conservation has evolved over the years. Back in the 1950s, the material legacy of these places was not considered to be of great importance; we have to remember that back then they were having an ongoing debate about the philosophy of memory.

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Anna Zagrodzka, photo: courtesy of the artist

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The attitude of museums towards nature has evolved – initially, trees were seen as symbols. During the war, the Germans planted poplars in these areas to conceal the crematoria, because poplars are known for their rapid growth. Unfortunately, these trees have a short lifespan, and left unattended, they were all dying. In the 1990s, a decision was made to protect them at all costs.

[Zagrodzka points to a photograph of a post-camp building.]

I liked how, as early as the mid-1950s, there was this vision for an anti-monument called The Road by Oskar Hansen. Nature has, in a way, subordinated the site anyway, thereby fulfilling Hansen’s concept. This was the last photo taken before someone ‘tidied up’ the area.

AW: In Hansen’s concept, the road symbolises the passage from life through death and back to life, but in a transformed way. ‘Alternaria Alternata’ is similar in this regard – it depicts life after death. What did you feel was most important when documenting the project?

AZ: It was important to me to create documentation that, in a sense, would be indisputable. Since digital photos can be manipulated, I started using Polaroids. I didn’t choose Instax cameras, but Polaroids specifically, because they contain hidden chemicals inside – they’re alive, with the photo’s ‘maturation’ process just continuing all the time.

In Sobibór, I photographed barbed wire growing out of trees, the only physical remnant that’s survived to this day. The trees were often the only silent witnesses. It seemed important to show life after life in these places.

AW: Your project consists of two parts: field research and laboratory research.

AZ: I found it interesting to present one place from two perspectives.

[The artist takes a tablet out of her bag and turns on a video.]

I recorded short videos demonstrating how I conducted the field tests. During microbiological analyses, you have to photograph the site and note the time and date. At first, I intended on presenting only the research aspect, but I realised that the picture would be more comprehensive if I showed the entire process. All my projects are transdisciplinary; all the media are interconnected in some way.

[The artist presents me some monochrome medium-format photographs.]

At one point while I was working on Alternaria Alternata, I started using a special negative that was sensitive to the infrared spectrum, to what emits heat, namely to what’s alive in a sense. I thought it’d be another signal that could indicate the life hidden there.

AW: The photos are sharp, but I notice a blurring effect on the Polaroids. That blurring seems similar to how our memory functions.

AZ: I was working on my project at a time when Polaroids were practically no longer available, but then luckily the Impossible Project company was founded and restarted the production of instant photos. Some of the chemicals that were previously used to make them were banned by the European Union. The Impossible Project had to recreate the chemistry anew, and it wasn’t always as perfect as the original. That’s why you sometimes see the colours are reproduced slightly more poorly.

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Anna Zagrodzka, 'Alternaria alternata', photo: courtesy of the artist

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I used a Polaroid camera with Spectra film to get a format similar to the medium-format images I captured with a Mamiya RB67. I worked on the project for so many years that its production was eventually discontinued. To maintain continuity, I started taking photos with 600 camera film. However, the chemicals in Polaroids have no outlet and keep reacting, so I’m observing the slow process of the images fading away.

AW: There used to be a film called Fade to Black for Polaroids, which caused the photo to disappear after 24 hours.

AZ: I also considered a Polaroid camera using Fuji FP-100 film, but at the time, it was hard to find. For the Belfast exhibition, I chose infrared and mould photographs.

AW: No Polaroids?

AZ: No.

AW: That’s a shame.

AZ: Scanning Polaroids removes a lot of their essence. For my 2022 exhibition at the Fort Institute of Photography, I didn’t want any copies. Admittedly, I did use scans depicting places of remembrance, but alongside them, I displayed a whole row of original Polaroids.

AW: Have you considered displaying the photos near the camps where you took them?

AZ: I really liked Roma Sendyka’s project about non-sites of memory. It inspired me to consider documenting and creating a map of sites of non-memory, which, despite not being remembered, still significantly influence the communities living nearby.

After my exhibition during Warsaw Gallery Weekend, the Warsaw Ghetto Museum contacted me to acquire a collection dedicated to the study of Treblinka. It was a great honour for me. I prepared films, Polaroids and photographs of mould from the site.

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Anna Zagrodzka, 'Alternaria alternata', photo: courtesy of the artist

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The last element of that documentation was a sculpture currently on permanent display at the Kamienica Hilarego Majewskiego Gallery in Łódź. I created a light object that had photographs of spores of the eponymous mould Alternaria alternata embedded inside. It was an attempt to spatialise and magnify the images observed under a microscope.

AW: Your project illustrates a cyclical aspect of life. You could make the analogy that on one side, there’s genocide, and on the other, there’s the mould that erases the memory of it.

AZ: I read memoirs of camp prisoners who said that nature had seemed to vanish, as if it had retreated. It couldn’t be heard, and the grass became mud. I tried to get to know these places in two ways: I attended conferences on the conservation of wooden barracks and academic sessions on the environmental history of extermination. At one of them, I had the pleasure of meeting Prof. Ewa Domańska. She found my project interesting enough to write an article about it entitled Mikrobiologia Obecności (The Microbiology of Presence).

AW: I’ve read it. Prof. Domańska concludes by reflecting that perhaps we should get used to thinking of humanity as a transitional state, and that we are only humans here and now.

AZ: I think similarly. I find it fascinating that two essentially different languages can describe the same problem. My dream is to create a publication that combines texts from the new humanities and natural sciences.

Anna Zagrodzka – 'Alternaria alternata' [Image Gallery]

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AW: An important question before we end: should we leave post-camp sites to nature, or should we intervene so that traces of memory are not erased?

AZ: In one of the museums, I saw a renovated crematorium – it looked completely new. In some spots, Dachau resembles a beautiful garden. It’s important to remember these sites, but perhaps it’s nature that should be allowed to preserve their remnants. What Jacek Małczyński wrote in his article – that museums categorise greenery into higher, desirable ones like trees, and lower ones like weeds, and how he linked this to Zygmunt Bauman’s concept of gardening culture – is horrifying to me.

AW: Finally, any thoughts about how your project might be received in Belfast? ‘Alternaria Alternata’ is being displayed at the Botanic Gardens, after all, a place more associated with relaxation.

AZ: In Belfast, I’ll be talking about my work, and I thought a microbiological perspective could provide a suitable context for the photographs, revealing the behind-the-scenes story of their creation. When I take up a difficult topic, I always try to make it visually appealing. I want viewers to feel inspired to learn more. That’s what makes it interesting.

‘Metamorphosis’ was a series of exhibitions, events and screenings that took place as part of the Belfast Photo Festival, focusing on the changing landscape of Polish ecology and society. Thanks to the support of the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, installations created in collaboration with Polish artists – Diana Lelonek, Anna Zagrodzka, Karol Szymkowiak, Dyba & Adam Lach – and Fotofestiwal Łódź could be seen in key locations in central Belfast from 5th to 30th June 2025.

Anna Zagrodzka – graduated in photography from the Cinematography Department at Łódź Film School and in food technology from Łódź University of Technology (Faculty of Biotechnology and Human Nutrition). In her artistic and research work, she focuses on the relationship between science and art. Each project is preceded by a thorough theoretical analysis. She combines photography with video installations and sound. She worked as a photographer in the architectural and artistic team of the ‘Amplification of Nature’ project at the Polish Pavilion at the International Biennale of Architecture in Venice. Her works have been presented at exhibitions in Poland and abroad. She is a laureate of the SHOW OFF Section at Kraków Photomonth Festival. She also curates projects, including the exhibition ‘Subjective Photography in Polish Art 1956-1969.’ She collaborates with artists, researchers and institutions on interdisciplinary artistic projects. Her works are included in the collections of the Warsaw Ghetto Museum and the Museum of Art in Łódź.

Interview conducted in Polish in Belfast, June 2025, translated by Agnieszka Mistur, July 2025

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