Roman Vishniac

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Roman Vishniac 1977

Roman Vishniac ( Russian Роман Вишняк , Roman Wischnjak ; born August 19, 1897 in Pavlovsk near Saint Petersburg ; † January 22, 1990 in New York ) was an American biologist , photographer and pioneer of scientific photography . He was particularly known for his photographs of Jewish life in Central and Eastern Europe before National Socialism.

Life

Vishniac was born in Pavlovsk , near Saint Petersburg, as the son of the wealthy umbrella manufacturer Solomon Vishnyak and his wife Manja and grew up in Moscow . As a child he was interested in biology. For his seventh birthday, his grandmother gave him a microscope, which he used extensively. He managed to take photos through this microscope. Among other things, he took pictures of the muscles of a cockroach magnified 150 times. From 1914 he studied biology in Moscow, where he assisted the biologist Nikolai Koltzoff, among others . Shortly afterwards he was drafted into the army.

In 1918 Vishniac met Luta (Leah) Bagg. Her family came from Riga , in July 1920 she returned to Latvia , which has now become independent . Vishniac deserted and followed Luta. Since the couple got engaged, Vishniac also received a Latvian passport, which allowed him and Luta to travel to Berlin. A few years earlier, Vishniac's family had emigrated to Berlin in order to escape anti-Semitism, which did not decrease after the Russian Revolution.

Shortly after arriving in Berlin, Vishniac married Luta Bagg. The couple had two children, Wolf (1922–1973) and Mara (* 1926). Attempts to build a business existence have failed. After that, Vishniac devoted himself only to his scientific inclinations: microscopy and photography.

The situation of Jews in Eastern Europe worsened considerably in the mid-1930s. The Berlin office of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee asked Vishniac to visit the Eastern European ghettos and shtetlach in order to capture the poverty and misery there. From 1935 to around 1939, Vishniac traveled frequently from Berlin to Eastern Europe to document the culture and life of Orthodox Jews.

In view of the increasing discrimination and oppression of the Jews in National Socialist Germany , the Vishniac family's Latvian citizenship initially offered a certain protection. After the Reichspogromnacht on November 9, 1938, Luta fled with the children Wolf and Mara to their sister in Sweden. Roman Vishniac followed his parents to France. Soon after, he was arrested and interned in Paris. Latvia had been annexed by the Soviet Union and Vishniac was considered stateless. At this point, Roman and Luta's divorce was already a done deal. It was only postponed because there were concerns about the issue of visas. Luta Vishniac finally managed to get visas for the United States for the whole family. On New Year's Eve 1940, the Vishniacs arrived in New York with the SS Siboney . On board this ship were Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and Jean Renoir , among others .

Edith and Roman Vishniac

Vishniac initially had a very difficult time gaining a foothold in the United States. He spoke German, Russian and Yiddish, but no English, which turned out to be very difficult to find a job. Eventually he managed to get some portrait commissions, which Vishniac and his family could not support well. In 1942 one of Vishniac's most famous portraits was created, that of Albert Einstein . Vishniac had gained access to Einstein's house on the pretext of bringing greetings from mutual friends in Europe. Vishniac photographed Einstein in a moment when he was lost in thought and paid no attention to him. This picture was to become Einstein's favorite portrait of himself.

In 1946 Vishniac was divorced from Luta. Only a year later he married Edith Ernst, a friend of the family. Soon after, he gave up portrait photography entirely to work only in the field of microphotography and biology.

Vishniac remained active even in old age. In 1957 he became a research associate at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and in 1961 he was awarded the title of Professor of Biological Education . When he was eight years old, he was appointed Chevron Professor of Creativity at the Pratt Institute .

He has taught Oriental and Russian art, philosophy, religion in science (especially Jewish content), ecology, numismatics, photography at the City University of New York , Case Western Reserve University and various other institutes. In the 1960s, with support from the National Science Foundation, a number of educational films were made, including a. about cell biology, embryology, evolution, genetics, ecology, botany, the world of animals and the world of microbes based on Vishniac's colored photomicrographs.

He has received honorary doctorates from the Rhode Island School of Design , Columbia College of Art, and California College of Art . In 1984 he was accepted as an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters .

He died on January 22, 1990 of colon cancer.

plant

Photography in Eastern Europe, 1935–1939

Vishniac became known for his photos of Jewish ghettos and shtetlach in Eastern Europe. The Berlin office of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee wanted to raise funds to help the poverty-stricken Jewish communities. Vishniac's pictures were supposed to document the misery. However, Vishniac developed a great self-interest in this work. Years after the work for the committee was completed, he traveled to Russia, Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia and Lithuania.

Working on his photographs was often difficult. In many countries Jews were forbidden to carry cameras, let alone take photos. That's why Vishniac pretended to be a sales representative and always took photos with a hidden camera. Occasionally he was arrested on suspicion of espionage. The photographs that were taken in this way show people, mostly in small groups, doing their daily work, often reading religious texts, sometimes just sitting there and staring impassively. You can hardly see the hint of a smile in these photos. Despite the unfavorable conditions in which these pictures were taken, without additional lighting, apart from the occasional kerosene lamp, they are astonishingly rich in contrast and have a surprisingly high depth of field.

Several books containing the photographs from this period were later published in the United States: Polish Jews , 1947, A Vanished World , 1983, To Give Them Light , 1993, and Children of a Vanished World , 1999.

Microphotography and Biology

Vishniac was a tireless worker in the field of microphotography, particularly interference microscopy and microscopic film. He developed methods of photographing his objects alive, in contrast to other researchers who only photographed dead specimens. He had considerable talent for photographing the moving creatures on the slide of his microscope at exactly the right moment. According to Philippe Halsman , then president of the American Society of Magazine Photographers , Vishniac was a “ special genius ” in the field of microphotography. He was not limited to specific research subjects, but worked with many different specimens, e.g. B. Protozoa and fireflies . His work did not go unnoticed in research circles. For three consecutive years he won an award from the Biological Photographic Association in New York.

One of the most spectacular examples of Vishniac's special talent was a photograph of his daughter using the compound eye of a firefly as a lens. As a biologist, Vishniac specialized in microscopic marine life, the physiology of ciliates , the cycle of unicellular plants, endocrinology and metamorphosis. However, he mainly occupied himself with his research objects in order to be able to photograph them better.

More photography

  • Vishniac's photos of insects, taken with a 35mm SLR with extension rings, are remarkable.
  • During his time in Berlin, he took numerous photos of everyday scenes. Later, already in the United States, portraits that had become famous were made. a. by Albert Einstein and Marc Chagall .

Exhibitions (selection)

  • 2014: Roman Vishniac: (re) discovered. , Joods Historisch Museum in Amsterdam .
  • 2014: Roman Vishniac. De Berlin à New York, 1920–1975 , Musée d'art et d'histoire du Judaïsme in Paris
  • 2013: Roman Vishniac Rediscovered , International Center of Photography in New York
  • 2005–2007: Roman Vishniac's Berlin , Jewish Museum Berlin, Goethe-Institut New York
  • 2001: Roman Vishniac Children of a Vanished World , Spertus Museum in Chicago
  • 1993: Man, Nature, and Science, 1930–1985 , International Center of Photography, New York
  • 1971: The Concerns of Roman Vishniac , The Jewish Museum in New York
  • 1962: Through the Looking Glass , IBM Gallery in New York

Religion and belief

Vishniac always had strong ties to Judaism. He became a Zionist and a bitter fighter against anti-Semitism. Many of his relatives were murdered in the Nazi concentration camps. He always saw religious aspects in his work, even if he was not a strict adherent of the Jewish faith. " Nature, God, or whatever you want to call the Creator of the Universe, reveals itself most clearly when looking through the microscope ," he once said.

Illustrated books

Web links

Commons : Roman Vishniac  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikiquote: Roman Vishniac  - Quotes

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Roman Vishniac: The images of murdered people in HaGalil
  2. ↑ Mara Vishniac married the chemist and later Nobel Prize winner Walter Kohn and lives in Santa Barbara, see the biography of the couple under Archived Copy ( Memento of the original from October 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / santabarbara.hillel.org
  3. ^ Honorary Members: Roman Vishniac. American Academy of Arts and Letters, accessed March 3, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Vishniac, novel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Вишняк, Роман (Russian); Vishnyak, Roman (Russian, transcribed)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American photographer
DATE OF BIRTH August 19, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Pavlovsk near Saint Petersburg
DATE OF DEATH January 22, 1990
Place of death new York