The desire to honor Holocaust survivors and their families in the New York region by creating a photographic record that will live on in a new book has prompted photographer Brian Marcus, owner of Fred Marcus Studio, author June Hersh and the Kupferberg Holocaust Resource Center in Queens, to work together on a new project: Photographing survivors with their families and writing down their stories.
Toward that end, Marcus recently conducted two photography sessions at Temple Beth Sholom in Roslyn Heights and more will be scheduled for the fall on Long Island and in Queens. He has already photographed 30 survivors and their families; many are clients of the Long Island Division of Selfhelp Community Services, the oldest and largest service provider to Holocaust survivors in North America.
Marcus, the grandson of the late Fred Marcus, a Buchenwald survivor who founded the Fred Marcus Photography Studio in New York, said that he wants to honor his grandfather’s memory by preserving history through photography. The project is his brainchild and will include photos Marcus took of activist survivor and Nobel Peace Prize recipient and author Elie Wiesel.
Marcus is taking portrait shots of survivors at no charge to be included in a new exhibit at the Kupferberg Holocaust Resource Center of Queensborough Community College. He will take a photo of each survivor individually and with his or her family for the exhibit and book project, and will present each family with a complimentary framed copy of the family photo. There is no cost to participate. Marcus hopes that in this way, survivors and their families will have their family history preserved in pictures.
Author June Hersh, the bestselling author of Recipes Remembered, a Celebration of Survival, a compilation of recipes and stories gathered from Holocaust survivors, will interview survivors and write the text of the commemorative book Marcus plans to publish.
Survivors and their families who would like to be photographed for the project may contact Marcus at 212-873-5588 or email him at BrianMarcus@fredmarcus.com.
