Artist Database

Roman Vishniac, born in 1897 to a Russian-Jewish family, is renowned for his iconic images of Jewish life in pre-Holocaust Europe. Vishniac’s work captured a world that was rapidly disappearing as he documented Jewish communities across Eastern Europe and the rise of Nazism. Vishniac grew up in Moscow but began his photographic career in Berlin, where he moved with his family in 1920 after the Russian Revolution. Between 1935 and 1938, he was commissioned by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (AJDC) to photograph Jewish poverty in Eastern Europe. After being interned in France, Vishniac and his family emigrated to the United States in 1940, settling in New York City. In 1947, he returned to Europe to document Jewish refugees in the aftermath of World War II. His photographs are in acclaimed collections such as the International Center of Photography in New York City and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC.