45 Facts About Roman Vishniac

Roman Vishniac was a Russian-American photographer, best known for capturing on film the culture of Jews in Central and Eastern Europe before the Holocaust.

Roman Vishniac was a versatile photographer, an accomplished biologist, an art collector and teacher of art history.

Roman Vishniac made significant scientific contributions to photomicroscopy and time-lapse photography.

Roman Vishniac was very interested in history, especially that of his ancestors, and strongly attached to his Jewish roots; he was a Zionist later in life.

Roman Vishniac won international acclaim for his photos of shtetlach and Jewish ghettos, celebrity portraits, and microscopic biology.

Roman Vishniac was remembered for his humanism and respect for life, sentiments that can be seen in all aspects of his work.

In 2013, Vishniac's daughter Mara Kohn donated to the International Center of Photography the images and accompanying documents comprising ICP's "Roman Vishniac Rediscovered" traveling exhibition.

Roman Vishniac was born in his grandparents' dacha outside Saint Petersburg, in the town of Pavlovsk, and grew up in Moscow.

Young Roman Vishniac used this microscope extensively, viewing and photographing everything he could find, from dead insects to animal scales, to pollen and protozoa.

Until the age of ten, Roman Vishniac was homeschooled; from ten to seventeen, he attended a private school at which he earned a gold medal for scholarship.

Roman Vishniac followed them and, shortly after arriving, married Luta Bagg, who gave birth to two children, Mara and Wolf.

Roman Vishniac researched endocrinology and optics, and did some photography.

In 1935, as anti-Semitism was growing in Germany, Roman Vishniac was commissioned by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee in Central Europe to photograph Jewish communities in Eastern Europe as part of a fund-raising drive to help support these poor communities.

Roman Vishniac developed and printed these pictures in his darkroom in his Berlin apartment.

Roman Vishniac used both a Leica and a Rolleiflex camera in his photography.

Roman Vishniac traveled to Paris in late summer 1940, and was arrested by Marshal Petain's police and interned at Camp du Ruchard, a deportation camp in Indre-et-Loire.

Roman Vishniac's father stayed behind and spent the war hidden in France; his mother died from cancer in 1941 while still in Nice.

The Roman Vishniac family fled from Lisbon to New York City in 1940, arriving on New Year's Eve.

Roman Vishniac managed to do some portraiture work with mostly foreign clients; but business was poor.

Roman Vishniac arrived at Einstein's home in Princeton, New Jersey, getting into the scientist's study with the ruse of bringing regards from mutual friends in Europe, and photographed him while the scientist was not paying attention to him, occupied in thought.

In 1946, Roman Vishniac divorced Luta, and the next year he married Edith Ernst, an old family friend.

Once in the United States, Roman Vishniac tried desperately to earn sympathy for impoverished Jews in Eastern Europe.

Roman Vishniac sent some of his photographs to the President, for which he was politely thanked.

Roman Vishniac concealed the negatives under floorboards and behind picture frames.

Roman Vishniac taught Oriental and Russian art, general philosophy and religion in science, specifically Jewish topics, ecology, numismatics, photography and general science at City University of New York, Case Western Reserve University and at various other institutions.

Roman Vishniac received Honorary Doctoral degrees from the Rhode Island School of Design, Columbia College of Art and the California College of Art, before his death from colon cancer on January 22,1990.

Roman Vishniac is best known for his dramatic photographs of poor and pious Jews in cities and shtetlach of Eastern Europe.

Roman Vishniac was commissioned to take these pictures by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee as part of a fundraising initiative, but Vishniac had a personal interest in this subject matter.

Roman Vishniac traveled back and forth from Berlin to the ghettos of Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia and Lithuania between 1935 and 1938 as well as working for the JDC.

When using a Leica for indoor shots, Roman Vishniac sometimes brought a kerosene lamp if there was insufficient light, keeping his back to a wall for support, and holding his breath.

Roman Vishniac did not just want to preserve the memories of the Jews; he actively fought to increase awareness in the West of the worsening situation in Eastern Europe.

Roman Vishniac's published pictures largely center on these people, usually in small groups, going about their daily lives: very often studying, walking, and sometimes just sitting; staring.

Roman Vishniac's photographs have had a profound effect on Holocaust literature and have illustrated many books about the Jewish ghettos and Holocaust.

Roman Vishniac specialized in photographing living insects and had a talent for arranging the moving specimens in "just the right poses", according to Philippe Halsman, former president of the American Society of Magazine Photographers.

Roman Vishniac worked with all sorts of specimens, from protozoa, to fireflies to amino acids.

Roman Vishniac invented new methods for light-interruption photography and color photomicroscopy.

Roman Vishniac is notable for his photographs of insects mating, sea bass feasting and other living creatures in full animation.

Roman Vishniac had even trained himself to hold his breath for up to two minutes, so that he could take his time and not disturb slowly exposing images.

Roman Vishniac was a pioneer in time-lapse photography, on which he worked from 1915 to 1918, and again later in life.

Roman Vishniac always had strong ties with his ancestry, especially the Jewish aspect of it, "From earliest childhood, my main interest was my ancestors".

Roman Vishniac was a Zionist and a strong sympathizer with Jews who had suffered because of anti-Semitism, "Oh yes, I could be a professor of anti-Semitism", stating then that he had one hundred and one relatives who were murdered in the Holocaust.

Roman Vishniac associated much of his work with religion, though not specifically Judaism.

Roman Vishniac's humanism is not just for Jews, but for every living thing.

Roman Vishniac even clashed with Orthodox Jews in one well-known instance: The religious Jews he met on his trek around Europe would not let themselves be photographed, quoting the Bible and its prohibition of making of graven images.

Roman Vishniac was known for having great respect for all living creatures.