Roman Vishniac Rediscovered

JANUARY 18–MAY 5, 2013

Roman Vishniac Rediscovered brings together four decades of work by an extraordinarily versatile and innovative photographer for the first time. Vishniac (1897–1990) created the most widely recognized and reproduced photographic record of Jewish life in eastern Europe between the two World Wars. These celebrated photographs were taken on assignment for the Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, the world's largest Jewish relief organization, from 1935–38, yet this exhibition follows the photographer's long and accomplished career from the early 1920s through the 1950s. This exhibition introduces recently discovered and radically diverse new bodies of work by Vishniac, and repositions his iconic photographs of eastern Europe within the broader tradition of 1930s commissioned social documentary photography. The exhibition is organized by curator Maya Benton.