Roman Vishniac | |
|---|---|
Роман Соломонович Вишняк | |
 Roman Vishniac, 1977 | |
| Born | August 19, 1897 |
| Died | January 22, 1990 (aged 92) New York City, United States |
| Nationality | Russian, American |
| Occupation(s) | Photographer, biologist |
| Spouses | Luta (Leah) Bagg
(m. 1918; div. 1946)Edith Ernst (m. 1947) |
| Children | Wolf V. Vishniac 1922–1973, Mara Vishniac 1926–2018 |
| Relatives |
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Roman Vishniac (/ˈvɪʃniæk/; Russian: Рома́н Соломо́нович Вишня́к; August 19, 1897 – January 22, 1990) was a Russian-American photographer, best known for capturing on film the culture of Jews in Central and Eastern Europe before the Holocaust. A major archive of his work was housed at the International Center of Photography until 2018, when Vishniac's daughter, Mara Vishniac Kohn, donated it to The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life at the University of California, Berkeley.[1][2][3]
Vishniac was a versatile photographer, an accomplished biologist, an art collector and teacher of art history. He also made significant scientific contributions to photomicroscopy and time-lapse photography. Vishniac was very interested in history, especially that of his ancestors, and strongly attached to his Jewish roots; he was a Zionist later in life.[4]
Roman Vishniac won international acclaim for his photos of shtetlach and Jewish ghettos, celebrity portraits, and microscopic biology. His book A Vanished World, published in 1983, made him famous and is one of the most detailed pictorial documentations of Jewish culture in Eastern Europe in the 1930s.[2] Vishniac was also remembered for his humanism and respect for life, sentiments that can be seen in all aspects of his work.
In 2013, Vishniac's daughter Mara (Vishniac) Kohn donated to the International Center of Photography[5] the images and accompanying documents comprising ICP's "Roman Vishniac Rediscovered" traveling exhibition.
In October 2018, Kohn donated the Vishniac archive of an estimated 30,000 items, including photo negatives, prints, documents and other memorabilia that had been housed at ICP to The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, a unit of the University of California at Berkeley's library system.[6]
- ^ "The Roman Vishniac Archive". International Center of Photography. February 9, 2012. Archived from the original on March 27, 2012. Retrieved April 18, 2012.
- ^ a b Newhouse, Alana (March 2, 2010). "A Closer Reading of Roman Vishniac". The New York Times Magazine. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 18, 2012.
- ^ Hickey, John (November 2, 2018). "Vanished no more: Giant of photography Roman Vishniac finds a home at The Magnes". Berkeley News. Retrieved December 5, 2018.
- ^ ICP Library of Photographers. Roman Vishniac. Grossman Publishers, New York. 1974.
- ^ "International Center of Photography". International Center of Photography.
- ^ "Vanished no more: Giant of photography Roman Vishniac finds a home at The Magnes - The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life". November 24, 2018.