Man Ray: The Artist and His Shadows: A Conversation with Author Arthur Lubow
Man Ray (1890–1976), a founding father of Dada and a key player in French Surrealism, is one of the central artists of the 20th century. He is also one of the most elusive. In this new biography in the Jewish Lives series at Yale University Press, journalist and critic Arthur Lubow uses Man Ray’s Jewish background as one filter to understand his life and art. How did this son of Russian Jewish immigrants become one of the most radically original maverick artists of his time?
In partnership with the Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA), the Center for Jewish History launched a new online exhibition, An Unlikely Photojournalist: Emile Bocian in Chinatown, a never-before-seen collection of images of Manhattan’s Chinatown in the 1970s and 80s. With a knack for self-promotion, Bocian became a photojournalist for The China Post, a Chinese-language daily. He photographed protests, celebrations, and crime scenes, as well as storefronts and streetscapes that provide a glimpse into a vanishing New York. These images, exhibited for the first time, also featured local luminaries and Chinatown visitors as far-flung as Cardinal Cooke, Muhammad Ali, and Big Bird.
Behind the Scenes of an Exhibition: Emile Bocian in Chinatown
In partnership with the Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA), the Center launched a new online exhibition, An Unlikely Photojournalist: Emile Bocian in Chinatown, a never-before-seen collection of images of Manhattan’s Chinatown in the 1970s and 80s. Co-curators Kevin Chu, Assistant Director of Collections at MOCA, and Lauren Gilbert, Senior Manager of Public Services at the Center for Jewish History, share a behind-the-scenes look into Bocian's life, his collection, and the genesis of the exhibition. Bocian’s grandniece and nephew were also in attendance to share their memories.
Emile Bocian (1912-1990) was the child of Jewish immigrants who spent the last two decades of his life living and working in Chinatown as a photojournalist for The China Post, a Chinese-language daily. He photographed protests, celebrations, and scenes of daily life, as well as storefronts and streetscapes that provide a glimpse into a vanishing New York.
The photographs in People of a Thousand Towns constitute a visual record of thousands of pre-World War II Jewish communities in Poland, Lithuania, Russia, Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia, Romania, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia. They span the late 19th century to the early 1940s and document the lives of large Jewish centers as well as many smaller towns and villages. In some cases, the pictures in the YIVO Archives are the only known photographic traces of communities later wiped out by the Nazis.
The 17,000 photographs in this catalog represent several important YIVO Archives collections of images of Jewish life in Eastern Europe. It is important to note, however, that this presentation covers only a small fraction of YIVO's extensive photographic holdings, one of the world's foremost collections of photographs of Jewish life around the world.
This article by David Shneer gives an overview of the history of Jewish involvement with photography, detailing how "Jews in Eastern Europe built the profession of photography."
YIVO Photo Archives Searchable Database
In this first phase of the YIVO Photo Archives website project, more than 9,000 catalog records of images held in the YIVO Photo Archives are available for browsing and searching. In the near future, additional information about the holdings of the Photo Archives, as well as a selection of digital images, will be added to the website.
The photo collection in the JDC Archives constitutes one of the most valuable sources in the world for a pictorial study of Jewish life in the 20th century and covers JDC’s worldwide relief, rescue, and renewal activities. The significance of the JDC Archival collection has been noted by photographic experts and by researchers. JDC photos have been in demand by scholars, curators, and filmmakers.
The Jewish Museum Photograph Collection
The Jewish Museum in New York City have made many of the photographs in their collection available to be viewed online. This collection contains works by Jewish photographers as well as works concerning Jewish life.
John L. Loeb, Jr. Database of Early American Jewish Portraits
The Loeb Portrait Database of American Jewish Portraits gathers over 500 known portraits of Jews in America prior to 1865 and includes a collection of portrait photography. Each portrait contains (where information is available), the subject’s name, birth and death dates, the artist and artist dates, the date of the portrait, the medium, dimensions, and the repository that holds the image. Of additional value are the biographies that accompany each portrait, a full listing of all repositories from which the images originate, and a rich array of related reading for additional research.
Yad Vashem Photography Collection
Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, hosts a collection of nearly 500,000 photos online, shared from multiple repositories globally.