ARTS FLASH: Living Witnesses photo project documents the faces and stories of Holocaust survivors

Monni Must is a photographer who has portraited hundreds of Holocaust survivors. Together, these faces make up her Living Witnesses project - a nonprofit book series that preserves the stories and faces of those who triumphed over trauma.

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ARTS FLASH: Living Witnesses photo project documents the faces and stories of Holocaust survivors

POSTED: Wednesday, April 6, 2011, 2:30 PM

Filed Under: Activism | Arts

Monni Must is a photographer who has portraited hundreds of Holocaust survivors. Together, these faces make up her Living Witnesses project — a nonprofit book series that preserves the stories and faces of those who triumphed over trauma. While Must’s first book, Living Witnesses 1, looked at survivors living in the Detroit area, her follow-up book has taken a broader view, compiling the photographs and stories of survivors across the world. Must is coming to Philadelphia on April 10 for a collaborative project with local high school students; she'll take the photos, and students will write up the stories of survivors. (If you know someone who would like to participate, call Must at 248-867-4884.)

City Paper: What made you start this project?
Monni Must: In 2007, my daughter died tragically and suddenly, everything stopped. I’m a portrait photographer. I found a strong connection with Holocaust survivors, because they too lost their families suddenly, without any chance to say goodbye. They reassure me that year later I will still be able to remember my daughter. So, it has slowly become a life’s mission for me and has helped me heal.

CP: Were you involved with Holocaust survivors before you started?
MM: Actually, I didn’t know anything about Holocaust survivors. I had friends whose parents who had accents and numbers on their arms, but I really didn’t have a sense of the scope.

CP: What are your interviews with survivors like?
MM: Well, I’ll give you an example from when I was in Germany. In Munich, we showed up at a survivor’s house and it was a couple. The wife spoke English and I thought it was just the man who was the survivor — it turned out both of them were. Their entire families were annihilated in the world. They didn’t have a single relative. Not until the interview was mostly over did I realize the wife was a survivor, too. When I asked her, she didn’t want to talk about it. Eventually, though, she decided to show portraits she still had and the pictures were a way for to open up and share with me.

CP: How is taking picture of survivors a different experience?
MM: Because I’m a portrait photographer, I watch every movement you take I want to watch your eyes, your hands, your facial expression. From that, I get a sense of who they are and how I can capture that in a photo. The difference is that in my studio, I’m controlling the environment. But when I’m in their house, it’s their house and it’s about them, so I always try to incorporate that into the shot. I want to capture their personality, who they are. I don’t want to represent just their their pain, because it’s about them being survivors.

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