Roman Vishniac exhibition reveals images of a world that vanished
First UK retrospective of Russian-American photographer has opened at Jewish Museum London and The Photographers' Gallery
Francine Wolfisz is the Features Editor for Jewish News.
Hands tucked into her thick winter coat, a little Jewish girl stands next to a 1933 election poster for Hindenburg and Hitler, a chilling foreboding of things to come for her community in Berlin.
Taken by her father, Russian-born photographer Roman Vishniac, the stark image precedes many more that poignantly document a politically-changing world.
As the rise of Nazism resulted in the boycotting of German-Jewish businesses and expulsion of children from schools, Vishniac sought to record the crippling effects of antisemitism: poverty, hunger and social degradation.
These captivating images are among hundreds featuring in Roman Vishniac Rediscovered, the first UK retrospective of Vishniac’s work, shown concurrently at Jewish Museum London and The Photographers’ Gallery.
Spanning from the early 1920s to the 1970s, the exhibition reveals the full depth of Vishniac’s work, which includes European modernism, photographs of New York City in the 1940s, and pioneering colour photomicroscopy — scientific photography through the lens of a microscope.
Born in Russia in 1897, Vishniac spent his childhood in Moscow, where he developed a lifelong interest in photography and science.
Following the Bolshevik revolution, he immigrated to Berlin in 1920 and witnessed the rise of Nazism.
In 1935, he was commissioned by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee to photograph impoverished communities in Eastern Europe.
The result was one of the most comprehensive photographic records by a single photographer of a vanished world.
Roman Vishniac Rediscovered runs until 24 February 2019 at Jewish Museum London and The Photographers’ Gallery. Details: jewishmuseum.org.uk, thephotographersgallery.org.uk
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