Category Archives: Museums

It was my second visit to the International Center of Photography, my first one a few years back left me with not such desire for their shows, back then it was a very short show on latin American photography that didn’t appeal to my senses. This time, the entire show tricked me with emotions, the photography was supers, so rich in context, and every picture represented its time and era and its political connotation in an extremely realistic and grasping way. There were two exhibitions that correlated in its time and subject, Roman Vishniac and Chim, both European photographers that lived and worked in Europe during WWI and WWII and saw jewish gentrification and the Spanish civil war amongst other major happenings of the early 20^th century.

I thought the show was phenomenal, first each artist had its own floor which made it easy to differentiate the works of both photographers. Also each piece had so much emotion it was beautiful at the same time as it was sad. You could see the misery of the people depicted in this pictures, but at the same times many of the photographics was filled with positivity, hope and faith. These people had lost everything except their eagerness to survive these horrible moments. The kids in the pictures are also such a beautiful depiction of child innocence. You can realize in their faces that they are a little unknowledgeable of what is happening, but they are still sad and see the misery of their people, but they also still have bright eyes and can utter a smile that is worth a million bucks.

Roman Vishniac had a ravishing collection from his four decades documenting jeiwish life in the interim and aftermath of both World War I and World War II, as well as the lives of the jewish population who had immigrated to the United States, mostly New York City. The compositions are extremely beautiful and the lighting induces emotion. The range of imagery from the army, to displaced families, orphan children, the camps really absorbs you to that point in time and makes you feel depressed about the occurrences of the Holocaust.

Chim’s work was a photojournalist report that span three decades of European life. He went on to photograph the happenings in Spain during the Civil War; World War II and how many countries started over after the great damages of the wars. His work is impressive in that it is very descriptive of what was happening at the moment.

Hurry up, both shows will be on display til may 5th, so anytime you find yourself around Bryant Park, see if you have one hour to check it out. You wont be dissapointed

To plan your visit, and any additional information visit the museum’s website at http://www.icp.org/visit