Polish Jews: A Pictorial Record.

VISHNIAC, Roman.

Item Number: 2307

New York: Shocken Books, 1947.

First edition of this classic work that Edward Steichen wrote, “among photography’s finest documents of a time and place.” Quarto, original black cloth. Inscribed by Roman Vishniac on the title page, “To my good friends- DePorto with deep appreciation from the author June 1948.” Near fine in a very good dust jacket with some chips to the spine and extremities. Introduction essay by Abraham Joshua Heschel.

Roman Vishniac's photography has been exhibited worldwide, for which he has been described as "one of the world's foremost photomicrographers" (McDarrah, 511). Roman Vishniac was hired in the 1930's by the Joint Distribution Committee to travel through Eastern Europe documenting people groups under assault in Germany. "These pictures," Vishniac wrote, "were made without letting the subjects know of the presence of a camera. They represent real life completely unposed. And so today they have become documents of a lost epoch of a lost people."