Bedřich Grünzweig

(1910, Brno – 2009, New York)

The exhibition presents Grünzweig's photographs of New York, where he traveled in 1939 from the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (he was the only member of his family to escape the Holocaust). Initially, New York – where he would go on to spend a large part of his life – was a mystery to Grünzweig. He was overwhelmed by its strange charm, its architecture, the mix of races and ethnicities, and its almost exhausting pace of life. Grünzweig shot New York all his life, but he also photographed while on his later private and professional travels (Israel, Spain, the Belgian Congo). He never altered his images, and he always photographed with an understanding of and view towards each situation – what was important for him was to capture a particular atmosphere and to combine it with direct, personal experience.