ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the role of photography in the recovery of the memory of lost urban communities from several perspectives, including that of photography’s semiotic dynamics, its use in literature as motif and visual strategy, and the photograph as object within the urban context. Photographs are used prominently in the decor of historically themed restaurants or as illustrations in popular fiction books. While all the mnemonic functions ascribed to photography are important, photographs are more than private souvenirs or visual icons of dramatic change; they also speak to the fundamental, internal mechanics of memory itself. The text features descriptions of several photographs of pre-war or wartime Warsaw, which the narrator uses to try to trace the process of the destruction of the Jewish city. The role of photography in literature goes beyond its use as illustration, however, and penetrates the representational strategies that writers employ.
