Roman Vishniac (vĭsh'nēăk), (August 19, 1897 - January 22, 1990), was a renowned Russian-American photographer of poor Jews in Eastern European ghettos in the 1930s. Roman Vishniac was also was an extremely diverse photographer, an accomplished biologist and knowledgable student and teacher of art history. Throughout his life he made significant scientific contributions to the fields of photography and microscopy and later became a teacher and collector of art and artifactsTemplate:Mn.
Roman Vishniac was born in Pavlovsk, Russia, a town near St. Petersburg in the summer of 1897Template:MnTemplate:Mn and died January, 1990 in New York CityTemplate:MnTemplate:Mn. Roman Vishniac's father was Solomon Vishniac, a well-to-do manufacturer of umbrellas. His mother, Manya was the daughter of affluent diamond dealers.
Biography
Early life
Roman Vishniac was born in his grandparent's dacha outside of St. PetersburgTemplate:Mn, but he grew up in Moscow (a right granted to few Jews) in a brick apartment building on Kiselny Pereulok. In summer, the Vishniac family took frequent retreats to a family dacha a few miles outside of Moscow as the city was often too hot.Template:Mn.
As a child Roman Vishniac was fascinated by biology and photography and his room was filled with, "plants, insects, fish and small animals"Template:Mn. On his 7th birthday, Vishniac got a microscope from his mother, to which he promptly hooked up a camera lens and photographed the muscles in a cockroach’s leg at 150 times magnificationTemplate:Mn. Young Vishniac used this microscope to its fullest, viewing and photographing everything he could find: from dead insects, to scales, to pollen and protozoa.
Beginning in 1914, Vishniac spent six years at Shanyavsky Institute in Moscow. While enrolled there he served in the Tsarist, Kerensky and Soviet armies. Back at the university he earned a Doctor of Philosophy in Zoology and became an assistant professor of biologyTemplate:Mn. As a graduate student there, Vishniac worked with prestigious biologist Nikolai Koltzoff, experimenting on the axolotl. While his experiments were a success, Dr. Vishniac was not able to publish a paper detailing his findings due to the political atmosphere. His results were independently duplicated, but this setback only motivated him to take a 3 year course in medicine sponsored by the governmentTemplate:Mn.
Berlin
In 1918, Vishniac's immediate family moved to Berlin because of anti-Semitism spurred by the Third Russian RevolutionTemplate:MnTemplate:Mn. The family had to stop at Kiev on their way out of Russia and rendezvous with Roman who aided in his family's emigrationTemplate:Mn. After this, Roman Vishniac joined his family in Berlin.
During most of his 19 year stay in Berlin, Vishniac lived with his parents. Under these circumstances, he married Luta (Leah) Bagg who gave birth to two children, Mara and WolfTemplate:MnTemplate:Mn. Roman began to support not only his own budding family but his parents as well. In order to do this, young Roman had to take various and menial jobs but he never gave up on his true interests. In his free time he completed a doctoral study of Far Eastern Art at the University of Berlin but was denied the doctorate because he was Jewish. Also, Vishniac did research in endocrinology and optics and took up portraiture and photojournalism. In Berlin, Roman Vishniac also initiated his public speaking career by joining the Salamander Club where he often gave lectures on naturalism Template:Mn.
Before leaving Europe, Roman Vishniac was arrested and interned by the Pétain police at the concentration camp Camp du Richard in Clichy, France. After 3 months he was released as the result of his wife's effortsTemplate:MnTemplate:MnTemplate:MnTemplate:Mn.
New York
In 1940, the Vishniac family moved to New York City via Libon and CubaTemplate:Mn, (Roman was released from the camp after his family procured a visa for him). The family unknowingly arrived on New Year's Eve and there was some confusion as to why the city was closed. Vishniac tried for days to get a job but failed. "For me, it was a time of distraction and fear,"Template:Mn.
Of the 16,000 photographs taken in Eastern Europe by Vishniac only 2,000 reached AmericaTemplate:MnTemplate:Mn. These negatives were carefully hidden by Roman and his family. In his own words, “I sewed some of the negatives into my clothing when I came to the United States in 1940. Most of them were left with my father in Clermont-Ferrand, a small city in central France. He survived there, hidden. He concealed the negatives under floorboards and behind picture frames.”Template:Mn. Roman Vishniac struggled to get a job, but he could speak no English and thus had a difficult time. He managed to do some portraiture work with mostly foreign clients, however business was poor. It was during this time that Roman took one of his most famous portraits, that of Albert Einstein, in 1942, by simply showing up at his home in Princeton, New Jersey. Around 1950, Roman Vishniac gave up being a portrait photographer and went on to do freelance workTemplate:Mn.
Once in the United States, Roman Vishniac tried desperately to earn sympathy for the improverished jews in Eastern Europe. When his work was exhibited at Teachers College of Columbia University, Roman Vishniac wrote to Eleanor Roosevelt (First Lady at the time), imploring her to visit the exhibit, but she did not do so. Vishniac also sent some of his photographs to the president, for which he was graciously thankedTemplate:MnTemplate:Mn.
Later life
In the 1970s he also received Honorary Doctoral degree from Rhode Island school of Design, Columbia College of Art and the California College of ArtTemplate:Mn.
Even when he grew older, Vishniac lead a very full life. In his 70s and 80s, Roman Vishniac became Chevron Professor of Creativity at Pratt Institute and lived on the west side of Manhattan, teaching, photographing, reading and collecting artifactsTemplate:MnTemplate:Mn.
Photography
Roman Vishniac won international acclaim for his photography. His pictures from the stetlekh made him famous, but his images of microscopic biology, too, are well known in the field. His photos have "regularly appeared in Life magazine"Template:Mn.
In Eastern Europe
Roman Vishniac is best known for his candid photographs of Jews (of which he took over 16,000) in cities and shtetlach in Eastern Europe. It is a little known fact that he was actually commissioned to take these pictures initially by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee as part of a fund raising initiative. Eventually, Vishniac took a personal interest in the photography, traveling back and forth from Berlin to develop the photographs he tookTemplate:Mn. Specifically he photographed the ghettos of Russia, Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia and Lithuania.
Vishniac posed as a traveling fabric salesperson, living with whoever would take him in. During his touring of Eastern Europe (1935?-1939) Vishniac was often arrested (and jailed 11 times) for taking these pictures, sometimes because he was thought to be photographing military basesTemplate:Mn. Such work has made Vishniac popular enough for his work to have been showcased at one-man-shows at the Louvre, Columbia University, the Jewish Museum and the Witkin Gallery.
The way in which Roman Vishniac took these photos is rather interesting. Vishniac has stated every photo of his from this period was a candid shotTemplate:Mn. With a concealed Leica wrapped to his forehead for indoor shots or a Rolleiflex peeking out of his coat for outdoor photographsTemplate:Mn, Vishniac captured tens of thousands of impovrished Jews on film in order, "...to preserve – in pictures, at least – a world that might soon cease to exist."Template:Mn
Photomicroscopy
In addition to the candid photgraphy for which he is best-known, Vishniac worked heavily in the field of photomicroscopy, specifically electron microscopy, interference microscopy, cinemicroscopy. Roman Vishniac specialized in photographing live subjects, rather than the usual dead ones. He had a knack for arranging the moving specimens in "just the right poses", according to Philipee Halsman, former president of the American Society of Magazine Photographers. On the subject of Vishniac's skill in photomicroscopy, Halsman said he was, "a special kind of genius"Template:Mn. One of his most common subjects was protozoa.
A few of Roman Vishniac's most famous endeavors in the field of photomicroscopy include revolutionary photographs depicting the world as a firefly sees it, behind forty-six hundred tiny ommatidia complexly arranged. Also there were the images taken at the medical school of Boston University of the circulating blood inside a hamster's cheek pouchTemplate:Mn.
Other photography
On the macroscopic scale, too, Vishniac photographed in myraid ways and for myriad purposes. Vishniac is notable for his photographs of insects mating, sea bass feasting and other living creatures in full animationTemplate:Mn. Roman employed interesting techniques to do this. With skill and patience Vishniac would stalk insects or other such creatures for hours in the suburbs around New York. Before beginning the hunt, he would lie for over an hour in the grass, rubbing himself with grass so as to make himself smell less artificial. Vishniac would then gracefully swoop close to his prey and patiently frame the scene with his SLR camera equipped with an extention tube for macro photography. Vishniac had trained himself to hold his breath for up to two minutes, so that he could take his time with the shot and not disturb the slowly exposing imageTemplate:Mn.
Roman Vishniac did not just work with non-humans. At times he would focus on portraiture and photojournalism, doing famous portraits of Albert Einstein and Marc Chagall. Roman Vishniac also did some pioneering work in the area of time-lapse photography.
Biology
As a biologist and philosopher, Roman Vishniac hypothesized polyphyletic origin. A theory that life arose from multiple, independant biochemical reactions, spawning multicellular life.
Philosophy and Religion
Roman Vishniac always had strong ties with his ancestry, especially the Jewish aspect of it, "From earliest childhood, my main interest was my ancestors". He was a Zionist and a strong sympathizer with Jews who had suffered because of anti-Semintism, especially during the Holocaust, "Oh yes, I could be a professor of anti-Semitism", also stating then that he had one hundred and one relatives who died during the HolocaustTemplate:Mn.
Publications
| Year | Title | Notes | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1947 | Polish Jews: A Pictorial Record | Polish Jews showcased 30 spiritual or religious images; First publication of work in Eastern Europe. Essay by Abraham Joshua Heschel. | Template:MnTemplate:Mn |
| 1947 | Die Farshvundene Velt: Idishe shtet, Idishe mentshn. The Vanished World: Jewish Cities , Jewish People | Edited by Rafeal Abramovitch; title, text and captions in English and Yiddish; includes photgraphs by R. Vishniac, A. Kacyzna, M. Kipnis and others. | [1][2] |
| 1955 | Spider, Egg and Microcosm: Three Men and Three Worlds of Science | Published by Eugene Kinkead; The three men were Petrunkevitch, Romanoff and Vishniac | Template:Mn |
| 1957 | Mushrooms (Nature Program) | Prepared with the cooperation of the National Audubon Society; Published by N. Doubleday; Library of Congress Control #: 57003046 and 66006050 | [3] |
| 1959 | Living earth | Drawings by Louise Katz; Subject: Soil biology; Library of Congress Control #:79000366 | [4] |
| 1969 | A Day of Pleasure : Stories of a Boy Growing Up in Warsaw | Written by Isaac Bashevis Singer | [5] |
| 1971 | Building Blocks of Life: Proteins, Vitamins, and Hormones Seen Through the Microscope | Published by Charles Scribner's Sons | Template:Mn |
| 1972 | The Concerned Photographer 2 | Grossman Publishers; Edited by Cornell Capa, text by Michael Edelson; In cooperation with ICP | Template:Mn |
| 1974 | Roman Vishniac | of the ICP Library of Photographers | Template:Mn |
| 1983 | A Vanished World | Foreword by Elie Wiesel; | Template:Mn |
| 1985 | Roman Vishniac | by Darilyn Rowan, published at Arizona State University School of Art. | [6] |
| 1993 | To Give them Light: The Legacy of Roman Vishniac | Biographical note by Mara Vishniac Kohn | Template:Mn |
| 1999 | Children of a Vanished World | Edited by Mara Vishniac Kohn and Hartman Flacks | Template:Mn |
- For a complete list of publications by and about Roman Vishniac, see the back of Roman Vishniac published by ICPTemplate:Mn, and the Library of Congress archive.
References
Template:Mnb The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia (2003). Roman Vishniac, (Photography, Biography). Retrieved October 18, 2005.
Template:Mnb Biogs.com Biography of Roman Vishniac. Retrieved October 18, 2005.
Template:Mnb Kendra, Greene. http://www.mocp.org/collections/permanent/vishniac_roman.php
Template:Mnb Ciano, Bob. The Vanished World: A limited edition portfolio. Witkin-Berley Ltd. Roslyn Heights, Ny. May 1977.
Template:Mnb Mendoza, Bernard (2003). A Photo-Documentary on Orthodox Jewish Communities living in America. Accessed September 3, 2005.
Template:Mnb Vishniac, Roman. The Concerns of Roman Vishhniac: Man, Nature and Science.
Template:Mnb Kohn, Mara Vishniac (1992). To Give them Light: The Legacy of Roman Vishniac, Biographical Note. Simon & Schuster. New York, New York 10020. 1993. ISBN 0671638726.
Template:Mnb ICP Library of Photographers. Roman Vishniac. Grossman Publishers, New York. 1974.
Template:Mnb Edited by Kohn, Mara Vishniac and Flacks, Miriam Hartman. Roman Vishniac: Children of a Vanished World. University of California Press. Berkeley and Los Angeles, California. 1999. ISBN 0520221877
Template:Mnb absolutearts.com Vishniac Photographs Breathe Life into Memories of Children from a Vanished World. Retrieved October 18, 2005.
Template:Mnb UCSB Arts & Lectures (2000). Work of photographer Roman Vishniac remembered in special illustrated program at UCSB. Retrieved October 18, 2005.
Template:Mnb Vishniac, Mara. A photographer of a vanished world and his family. Accessed November 6, 2005.
Template:Mnb Jewish Museum Berlin (2005). Special Exhibition: Roman Vishniac's Berlin. Accessed November 25, 2005.
Template:Mnb Greene, Kendra (2005). Roman Vishniac. Accessed November 25, 2005.
Template:Mnb Union for Reform Judaism (2004). Roman Vishniac--The Supreme Witness. Accessed November 25, 2005
Template:Mnb Roman Vishniac. Polish Jews: A Pictoral Record. Schoken Books Inc. New York. 1976.
Template:Mnb Roman Vishniac. A Vanished World. Penguin Books Ltd. London. 1983. ISBN 0713916354
Template:Mnb Vogt, Richard. Dr. Vishniac and the Beauty of the Real. Accessed December 9, 2005. According to the site, the text originally "appeared in Kodak International Review - No. 9".
Template:Mnb Darwin, Kim. The Stories behind Children of a Vanished World. Accessed December 9, 2005.
Template:Mnb Mitgang, Herbert (Oct. 2, 1983). "Testament to a Lost People". New York Times Magazine. pg 47.
See also
- Wolf V. Vishniac -- son of Roman's, eminent microbiologist, died in 1973 during an Antarctic expedition.
External links
- Every Vishniac -- webpage of Ephraim Vishniac, Roman's grandson, detailing the family tree of the Vishniacs.