Vishniac, Roman
Russian-American, b. 1897 Pavlosk, Russia, d. 1990 New York, NY
Beginning in 1933 under the Joint Distribution Committee and continuing until 1939, Vishniac documented daily life in the shtetls of Central and Western Europe. These pictures of Jewish communities were originally used to raise funds to support the increasingly marginalized peoples they depict, but they have come to stand for a way of life that was nearly extinguished. Of the 16,000 photographs he made during this project, all but 2,000 were confiscated and presumably destroyed. During the mid-1930s, Vishniac was imprisoned 11 times and forced to do hard labor in concentration camps, including an internment in France’s Camp Gurs. He eventually escaped and immigrated to New York in 1941.
In addition to his 1930s photographs of Jewish communities, Vishniac is also known as a pioneer in time-lapse cinematography, light-interruption photography, and color photomicroscopy of living organisms. His microphotography work was published not only in scientific venues, but also in popular magazines including Life. At Yeshiva University, he was appointed research associate in 1957, and in 1961 became professor of biological education at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Vishniac died on January 22, 1990 in New York City.