Henryk Ross, Untitled from Litzmann (Lodz) Ghetto (detail), 1940–45. Gelatin silver print. Gift of Howard Greenberg in honor of Jacques Preis. 2020.473.
Henryk Ross, Untitled from Litzmann (Lodz) Ghetto (detail), 1940–45. Gelatin silver print. Gift of Howard Greenberg in honor of Jacques Preis. 2020.473.
Myriad Lenses: The Evolving Act of Bearing Witness
6:00 pm–7:00 pm
Join us for a fascinating conversation with distinguished panelists from the MFA and Wellesley College about the MFA’s extraordinary collection of photographs of the Lodz Ghetto during the Holocaust.
Confined to the German-occupied ghetto in the Polish city of Lodz in 1940, Jewish photojournalist Henryk Ross was put to work by the Nazi regime as an official photographer under strict German authority. Between 1940 and 1944, he risked everything to secretly document daily life under the Nazis.
Inspired by a recent major gift of Ross’s photographs to the MFA, Wellesley alumna Elizabeth L. Reede (’84) and her team at Boulevard Arts developed an Augmented Reality (AR) app exploring Ross’s images and the incredible stories they tell about resilience and resistance. This new app provides the impetus to engage in a discussion around the act of bearing witness to the past. Our panelists consider the intersection of media, storytelling, and trauma from several viewpoints, addressing the questions: How do we share and experience lived history? How should memory be kept alive? What does it mean to look at history through a 21st-century lens?
This event is co-sponsored by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Wellesley Friends of Art; and the Wellesley Jewish Alumnae Association.
The AR app will be available to download to view these photographs closer to the event date. Please check the Wellesley event page for more information.
Follow the link to preregister for the program. Live-streaming programs utilize Zoom. To access you will be required to download Zoom.
Panelists
Kristen Gresh, Estrellita and Yousuf Karsh Senior Curator of Photography, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Claudia Joskowicz, assistant professor of Art, Wellesley College
Josh Lambert, Sophia Moses Robison Associate Professor of Jewish Studies and English and director of Jewish Studies, Wellesley College
Larissa Bailiff, senior director, Education, Boulevard Arts
Elizabeth L. Reede, co-founder and CEO, Boulevard Arts