Fleeting encounters

Pawel Figurski took this picture during a research trip to Chotyn, a city that is now part of the Ukraine. Chotyn was once an important centre of Jewish life. During World War II, from 1940 to 1944, the city belong to the dictatorial kingdom of Romania, that was allied to fascist Germany. This is why only a few Jews still live in Chotyn today. Figurski worked as a cameraman accompanying a group of philologists from the University of Indiana, who were researching the last people still speaking Yiddish in Chotyn. The university’s archive department has taken on the task of collecting contemporary witness reports revealing historic and ethnographic knowledge about the lives of Jewish people in East Europe before and during World War II.

When Figurski discovered two girls in the backyard of an enormous social building complex, he replaced the film camera for a photo camera. “These two girls were sisters, and were playing outside their apartment, waiting for the parents to come home from work. All the neighbours were taking care of them. I sat with them at their table for a while, had a chat, and took maybe six pictures. This is the one I like best.”