Meadow Broo
Theatre
Focus On Photography
OAKLAND UNIVERSITY'S
PROFESSIONAL THEATRE
COMPANY
STILL LIFE from page 93
Gripping
Drama of
Human
Courage
OCT 18
THROUGH
NOV 12
A teenage girl's joyous love of life
and indomitable spirit triumphs in
a world gone mad. From her
family's secret attic hiding place
in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam,
RATED PG
BY FRANCIS
young Anne fills her diary with
GOODRICH
hopes and dreams. Her compelling
AND ALBERT
story of innocence in the face of
HACKETT
terror has inspired generations.
MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR PRE-TEENS
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GROUP SALES: (248) 370-3316
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AMIE
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.vegmdfin.
odwrdl 4forr,
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THE
Observer It-centric
NEWSPAPERS
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NEW IN DETROIT?
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10/27
2000
94
SHALOM DETROIT
WELCOMES NEWCOMERS TO
OUR JEWISH COMMUNITY
Call the Women's Department at
(248) 203-1494 for more information
Roman Vishniac, whose
HONORS from page 91
elegiac images captured pre-
Shoah Jewish life, memori-
Los Angeles, an award-winning photographer
alized .the present for the
who has chronicled the career of Mohammed Ali
benefit of the future. Living
for more than 30 years; Carl Cramer of
in Germany in the 1930s,
Birmingham, longtime mentor to Detroit-area
Vishniac sensed the trouble
professional photographers; Daniel Graschuck of
for European Jews that lay
Detroit, who has spent 32 years with the Detroit
ahead.
Public Schools exposing students to the field of
Traveling across the ghettos
photography; and Dorothy Manty of Canton,
and shtetls of Eastern
the archivist at the Detroit Main Library respon-
Europe, Vishniac used a hid-
sible for the library's photo gallery.
den camera, defying local
Also being recognized are Bill Rauhauser of
authorities and the fierce
Southfield, professor emeritus at the Center for
resistance of religious corn-
Creative Studies and specialist in the history of
munities that feared he was
photography; Edward "Robbie" Roberson of
breaking the commandment
Detroit, well known for documenting the history
prohibiting the graven image.
of the civil rights movement; Ellen Sharp of
"Sometimes I think I pre-
Detroit, curator of graphic arts at the DIA; and
fer the storyteller in him to
Robert Vigiletti of Southfield, founder of the
the photographer," Elie
department of photography at Detroit's Center
Weisel wrote in his 1983
for Creative Studies.
introduction to A Vanished
Tickets for the gala are $50. Reserve tickets by
World, Vishniac's famous
phone: (248) 541-3527.
collection. "But aren't they
one and the same?"
Following the midrashic tra-
glitzy contemporary b'nai mitzvah.
dition, artists have often used the pho-
Photographers not known for Jewish
tograph as text upon which to add
subject matter, such as Nan Goldin and
their own commentary.
Richard Avedon, explored their own
Sometimes photographs are com-
roots with portraits of their parents,
mentaries themselves. Frederic
while Marc Alan Jacobs' kitschy series,
Brenner, in his literate 1996 series
"Jews of the Seventies," repackaged fami-
Jews/America/A Representation and
ly snapshots as historical documentation.
more recent Exile At Home, exerts
Around the same time that Vishniac
tight control over his photographs,
was trekking across Poland, Jewish
precisely staging each one to dramatize
avant garde photographers were using
the often ironic paradoxes of contem-
collage, performance and pastiche to
porary Jewish life.
revolutionize photographic technique.
Brenner has generated considerable
Claude Cahun (Lucy Schwob), Man
controversy with his polemic portraits
Ray (Emanuel Radnitsky) and Weegee
like a Jewish motorcycle club and an
(Arthur Fellig) each created new names
American Jewish Hall of Fame. In The
and made innovative pictures that
Reconstructionist, sociologist Egon
reflected the instability of the times.
Mayer praised Brenner's work as "a
Cahun's Dadaist and Surrealist work
rare display of an artistic effort, which
documents private performances for
has tried to capture in a series of
the camera. She recorded herself
black-and-white photographs a process
dressed as sailor, masked avenger, rag
that has bedeviled some of the most
doll and her own father.
gifted scholarly attempts at under-
Meanwhile, the work of Erwin
standing the cultural dynamics of
Blumenfeld, most famous for his fash-
modern American Jewry."
ion photography, includes a 1934
On the other hand, Brenner's images
photomontage that hauntingly over-
may assert that "there is no American
layed an image of Adolph Hitler with
Jewish life, there is only the spectacle
a skull and a swastika, the photogra-
of American Jewish life," Leon
pher's sense of the grim future as
Wieseltier wrote in The New Republic.
astute as Vishniac's.
"The humanism in Brenner's photo-
The impulse to comprehend the
graphs is, how shall I say, not real."
chaos of daily life runs through much
As the most accessible locus of tradi-
of photography, an impulse relied
tion, the family has provided Jewish
upon by Jews to record so that they
photographers the opportunity to
don't forget
explore both personal and social trans-
formations. In a recent show at The
— This article originally appeared
Jewish Museum, "The Changing Face
in CrossCurrents, the online newsletter
of Family," photographs ranged from
of the National Foundation
formal portraits from the late 1800s to
for Jewish Culture.
.
❑