German photographers took the best-known and vast majority of Holocaust photography, including iconic images such as “the Warsaw ghetto boy” and the selections at Auschwitz. In this talk, Judith Cohen (Chief Acquisitions Curator, USHMM) will examine the ways in which our visualization of the Holocaust largely comes from a Nazi lens and discuss how the work of Jewish ghetto photographers such as Henryk Ross can expand our vision, capturing aspects of life that were hidden from the Germans and introducing layers of ambiguity and nuance. How do photos taken by professional and amateur Jewish photographers in the ghettos differ from better-known ones taken by the Nazis? Does it matter who took the photo or just what appears in the image?
Join us for this talk presented in conjunction with the Museum’s exhibition Memory Unearthed: The Lodz Ghetto Photographs of Henryk Ross, which will be on view prior to the event.
Free; advance registration recommended