Finding Vivian Maier .... and ourselves

     I just watched the documentary Finding Vivian Maier. It is a film about a man who bought a box full of negatives at an auction and discovered photos of an amateur photographer. The photos were amazing. They were never displayed anywhere until after her death. The man who found these photos found out that Vivian Maier was a nanny and took these amazing photos as a personal hobby that no one knew about. Now that they have been discovered they have been exhibited in galleries.
    What struck me about this film was not just that it was a shame that she was not able to profit from her talent but that she did not bother sharing her photos with friends. No one  really ever saw these amazing photos. No one would have really found them had the storage area where she had kept her photos had not been cleared out and auctioned off.
       Like Vivian Maier there is so much about others that we do not know. There is so much about ourselves we do not share. There is so much potential in each of us that is not being maximized or shared with others. After watching this film I was really glad that I post my photos on facebook and sometimes on my blog. Pictures are not just two dimensional. They show so much about the subject and the way the photographer relates to the subject. It tells a story and evokes emotion.
      There is a lot of  potential in everyone. Its important to try and figure out what it is and try to not to just keep it to ourselves.

Roman Vishniac Rediscovered | International Center of Photography

Roman Vishniac Rediscovered | International Center of Photography  In honor of Yom Hashoah I went to see this exhibit. For all those who may not know, Roman Vishniac took photos of the shtetl Jews right before world war two. Until I saw this exhibition I did not realize that Roman Vishniac was Jewish . This of course explains why his photos are so charming. They were taken by someone who loved his people. The photos capture the facial expressions of these people. The photos of children are  wonderful. Some of the people in the photos have been identified. Some survived the war, others did not.
     David Eckstein was one of the chasidic heder boys who did survive the war. There is an excerpt from his shoah foundation video playing at the exhibit.
     Vishniac arrived in the United States in the early 1940's. He then  displayed his photos as a plea to help save the Jews of Europe. Displayed in the exhibit is his letter to FDR asking him to help the Jews who were trapped in  Europe.
     I have seen some of the books with Vishniac's photos, but to see his photos exhibited in a museum is dazzling and it honors those who were so brutally murdered. It gives a faces to the 6 million. It makes us remember that they were vibrant people.
     There is 17 minute video that shows shtetl Jews basket weaving and farming .It brings them to life. It is surreal .
     If you live in the New York area try to see this exhibit before it closes on May 5. You won't regret it.

my secret camera

my secret camera by frank dabba smith has the most amazing photos of the lodz ghetto. mendel grossman lived in the lodz ghetto and kept his camera hidden in his pocket as he photographed everyday moments of jewish people in the ghetto. they are very gentle photos that capture the humanity of these people who eventually endured brutal torture. they are also very artistic photos. when i look at the photos in this book the people come to life unlike other photographs. mendel grossman manages to capture the emotions and personalities of  his subjects.
this book is available in the new york public library in the children's section.. im not quite sure why. its not really a children's book. its also available on amazon.com and bn.com.
i bought this book years ago and im still in awe of these photos.
my most favorite photo is filled with valises and many people just schmoozing. one's eyes can't help but notice two women in this scene who are chatting as if they are in a supermarket . in another corner of this photo there are two ten year old boys smiling as if they are having a grand old time. its the saddest photo because with  the distance of time we all know what happend next to most of these people.these "before"  photos show these  precious souls before they became the skeletons of nazi war footage.
my secret camera  is not a sad book . its a lovely homage to those who perished. these photos attest to how much beauty was erased from this world. their physical beings may be gone, but some of their images are saved in this small photo book .

photos at a cemetery

many years ago my co-worker told me that he took photos of the cemetery that his father was buried in because he knew that he may not be able to visit the cemetery so often.

at the time my co-worker told me this i didn't think all that much about it either way. i didn't think it was weird yet i really didn't know what to think.

several years after my co-worker shared this , i saw photos that my family had taken of headstones in the shtetl before they left europe. it was actually kind of neat.

when my grandmother passed away nine years ago i took pictures of the headstones of my deceased relatives. surprisingly it did not seem odd. i saw the headstone of my beloved great-aunt who passed away when i was three years old. i realized that the reason i remembered her and her favorite pink housecoat bit i couldn't remember her face was because she passed away when i was so small.

being an avid photographer i wanted to take pictures of the cemetery my father was buried in but i didn't want to be disrespectful so this time i took photos with my cellphone camera. im glad i did. the day of the funeral was so beautiful. it made me think that my father must be resting in peace . my photos help me evoke this feeling as opposed to just sadness. it is indeed a brachah to be buried on a sunny day because it makes it easier for elderly friends and relatives to attend. if we believe someone can live od mayah v'esrim (until 120 yrs old) then there will surely be alot of elderly at the funeral. alas as in my poor father's case , he wasn't especially old, but there were many elderly friends and relatives who had an easier time paying their respects due to the pleasant weather.

p.s. this photo is just in the cemetery in general.

seven things i love

ive been tagged by the jewish side of the babysitter in a meme seven things i love . at the end i will tag seven other bloggers.

1. i love fall weather
2. i love book readings and especially love celebrity book readings
3. i love photography
4. i love meeting new people
5. i love blogging
   
6. i love when i have friends who really know and understand who i am and i know and understand who they are.
7. i love walking through central park in the spring and summer.

im now tagging seven people: mike, katrina, mak,quack, levadi, brainexposed, dys

film vs digital

i adore photography. 6-7 yrs ago i took a photography course and i became even more hooked. we used a 35mm manual slr camera for the class . of course this was at the dawn of digital photography. recently i purchased a digital camera. ive taken pictures with it, but i havent printed any or put any on my computer yet. im not the most technologically advanced . i plan on taking a course on digital photography.
i have taken some good photos on my new digital camera, but i still think that my photos from my film camera are better.
im glad that i learned photography on a film camera because alot of the concepts can be applied to digital photography .
i admit its nice to have the instant gratification of previewing photos on a digital camera.the advantage of getting film developed is that i dont have to do any of the processing work.
time stops for no one, and neither does technology. they say its important - its fun to learn new things, but its also exhausting!
well... i m going to include a film photo i took when the gates were up in central park. soon i will be more technologically advanced and i will post digital photos. you can decide which you like better.

beloved memories

my grandmother passed away seven years ago. as im writing this, i can barely believe it. its been seven years. seven years since ive seen my grandmother.
my grandmother was an amazing person. as a senior citizen she used to organize trips for seniors. she took them all over the united states.
grandma got married at 29 which in those days was like 39. she also travelled in her single days . my mom has an incredible photo album with photos from those trips . my favorite photos are of her and her friends in niagra falls on the maid of the mist. instead of those plastic cheapo raincoats they use now, they wore real raincoats . of course i really love these photos because i went to niagra falls with a group of my friends.
i miss the unconditional love that only a grandparent can bestow. i mourn the passing on of a generation. i miss my grandmother's hearty laugh.
because my grandmother was single and then a young widow, she worked various jobs whereas my mom never worked. grandma was a great person to commiserate with about work issues.
of course , i remember how when i was small grandma would sit on the floor and play kiddy games with me.
grandma didnt have the simplest life, but she always had a good attitude. though she was old you could speak to her about anything.
though my grandmother lives on in my memories, i miss not being able to see her in real life. i cant believe its been seven years

picture perfect

i've started reading the red leather diary which is proving to be alot of fun. one thing that i am truly enjoying is the old photos of the diarist . the photos are just amazing. the subjects really spring to life. one can hardly believe that florence wolfson, the young diarist is now 92 and many of youthful her friends pictured in this book are now quite elderly or possibly deceased. one can practically touch the youth captured in these photos. its surreal.
several years ago i visited great aunt of mine , who happened to be 92 at the time, and we flipped through her old photo albums. it was such a special evening. the pictures seemed so ancient, yet watching my great aunt recall the lives of those photographed truly brought those people to life.
my great aunt had a newspaper clipping with a picture of her and her friend. it was summertime.my great aunt was about 31 when the photo was taken. my great aunt told me that the reason that the photo was in the newspaper was because the photographer thought that she and her friend were beautiful. and they were (im not biased!) reading the red leather diary, and especially looking at its photos made me remember that evening .