yucolo.com :: Westlicht - Schauplatz für Fotografie

5 February 2008 – 23 March 2008

Herlinde Koelbl. Jüdisches Porträt

From 1986 to 1989 the photo artist Herlinde Koelbl made portraits with her camera of German speaking, Jewish celebrities who survived the Shoah and carried out in-depth discussions with them. From the 5th of February till the 23rd of March 2008 WestLicht. Schauplatz für Fotografie will be showing around 35 of these large-format, original prints together with quotations from the interviews: Alfred Eisenstaedt (photographer, photo journalist), Sir Ernst Gombrich (art historian), Karl Kahane (industrialist), Teddy Kollek (politician), Marcel Reich-Ranicki (literature critic), Georges Tabori (actor, director and author) and Bruno Kreisky (Austrian Federal Chancellor) are amongst those portrayed.

In the 1930’s and 1940’s, going into exile was the only way for most of these well-known people of Jewish descent to escape from the years of the Nazi regime and thus the Shoah. Very few returned after the war to their home country. Herlinde Koelbl photographed not only those who did but also those who preferred to remain in exile. She talked to them about their understanding of Jewish tradition, religion and home, about their attitudes towards Israel, Germany and Austria. The very differing replies—each in the context of a highly sensitive portrait—are extremely personal memories of the partners in the dialogues.

The photographs and interviews were presented in the publication “Jüdische Porträts” (Jewish Portraits), 1st edition 1989. The result is a portrait of the generation of German-speaking Jews that experienced the destruction of their culture and survived it. Against this background Herlinde Koelbl’s work can be read historically as an extremely informative contemporary document: as a valuable historical enterprise since only a few of those interviewed are still alive today.

Herlinde Koelbl. Jüdisches Porträt

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