Arts & Entertainment
From Richness To Ruin
Separated by six decades, two photographers document Poland's Jewish
communities — before and after the Holocaust.
Suzanne Chessler
Special to the Jewish News
I
saac Street, a 1938 photo taken by famed camera art-
ist Roman Vishniac, shows a Jewish man and woman
walking along what was then the Jewish section of
Krakow, Poland.
Swastika Graffiti on Izaaka Street in the Former Jewish
Quarter, Krakow, a 2001 photo taken by Jeffrey Gusky,
shows the same area, the area bereft of Jewish occupants
and a building desecrated with a swastika.
These images, paired together, are part of an exhibit
capturing Jewish life in Poland before and after World War
II. Ninety pictures, half representing each of the camera
devotees, were organized by the Santa Barbara Museum
of Art and come together as "Of Life and Loss: The Polish
Photographs of Roman Vishniac and Jeffrey Gusky."
The touring display, presented April 15-July 12 at the
Detroit Institute of Arts, has been sponsored locally by
Karen and the late Bill Davidson.
While Vishniac's pictures were commissioned by the
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), a
relief agency using them to raise money for those ravaged
by the conditions surrounding the war, Gusky chanced
upon his subject matter beginning in the 1990s while on
a personal journey and later learned about the work of
his predecessor.
"I think the exhibit conveys a real sense of the loss of the
spirit of the Jewish community in areas of Poland and the
loss to the larger community in so many aspects': says Mara
Vishniac Kohn, 82, the daughter of the late photographer.
"Cultures were so influenced by Judaic tradition in sci-
ence, literature, music, art and the commitment to schol-
arship; and the sudden absence of the Jewish population
is a tragedy for everyone."
Kohn, who helped her father with his photo process-
ing and worked on the exhibit, is especially struck by the
pairing of a particular set of images focused on a window.
In her father's picture, the window frames two young
women. In Gusky's photo, the window is empty.
"I think my father's passion for a deep involvement
with people was conveyed through his photography,"
explains Kohn, a former special education teacher.
"I believe that my father showed personalities as
well as images and makes viewers feel involved with the
people he has photographed!"
Kohn, who was born in Berlin, recalls her father (1897-
1990) as specializing in two kinds of work — documen-
tary photography and microphotography for science
projects. The first group is archived at the International
Center of Photography in New York and the second at the
University of South Carolina.
While Kohn's Santa Barbara home holds many family
pictures taken by her famous father, one image of her
remains startling each time she sees it, particularly in the
context of both history and her own life. At age 7, she is
shown standing near election posters of Hitler before he
came to power.
Jeffrey Gusky, Swastika Graffiti on Izaaka
Street in the Former Jewish Quarter;
Krakow, 2001, baryta fiber print.
As Gusky compared Vishniac's images to
his own, there were new emotions to sense.
He was very moved, for instance, by the
differences in the pictures of a 15th cen-
Roman Vishniac: Isaac Street, Kazimierz; Krakow, 1938, gelatin
tury synagogue.
silver print.
"The building was completely empty
and, therefore, very quiet when I was there,"
"The meaning is way beyond the picture," says Kohn,
he explains. "I later learned that I stood in the same spot
whose escape from Germany took her family to Portugal
where Vishniac stood with his camera in 1937, when doz-
before their 1941 arrival in the United States.
ens and dozens of people were milling around before him."
"There are issues from the times of World War II that
Gusky, who lives in Texas, was fascinated to learn
we must be aware of today, and they have to do with
of similarities beyond black-and-white photography
devaluing certain people for physical, racial and other
he shared with Vishniac. Both were of Russian-Jewish
[characteristics]. That can only lead to tragedy, such as
descent and worked in the sciences.
what has been occurring in Darfur, and reminds us that
"I think these pictures get viewers through the side
[atrocities] are not past."
door of their emotions ; ) says Gusky, who is planning a
Gusky, 55, an emergency room physician moving away
documentary film about genocide. "I want them to feel
from full-time doctoring and toward photography and film,
something about modern life.
agrees with Kohn on the impact of the images. The two got
"As an ER doc, I'm attuned to risk and helping patients
to know each other while compiling photos for the exhibit,
and families through darkness to light. Together, we
envisioned by a curator familiar with Vishniac's work before
should connect the past and present it in a way that
seeing a display of pictures taken by the doctor.
makes us attuned to the risk of genocide that's still with
"I believe 'Of Life and Loss' helps people get their arms
us and work toward a better future." -1
around the notions of mass destruction and genocide,
very real risks that we still face:' says Gusky, whose photos
from Poland, taken during four trips, also can be seen in
The Detroit Institute of Arts presents "Of Life
his book Silent Places.
and Loss" April 19-July 12. Hours: 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
"When I saw firsthand the remnants of the concentration
Wednesdays-Thursdays, 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Fridays and
camp depicted in Schindler's List, it was like a switch flipped
10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturdays-Sundays. Free with regu-
on inside of me, and I started photographing what I was
lar admission: $8 adults, $4 ages 6-17, free for DIA
feeling. I wanted others to experience those feelings
members. (313) 833-7900; www.dia.org .
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