World War II photographs by Yevgeny Khaldei exhibited at Colgate’s Picker Art Gallery

Tour and lecture held on Dec.2

(Hamilton, NY) The Picker Art Gallery at Colgate University currently presents “Yevgeny Khaldei: The Great Patriotic War,” on view through December 20. Professor David Shneer of the University of Colorado, Boulder, will provide a public tour through the exhibition on December 2, 12:15-1:15 pm., as well as a lecture at 4:30 in Little Hall. The show of the gallery’s Khaldei photographs tells the story of World War II, as seen by the most important Soviet photojournalist of that era. The programming is co-sponsored by the department of art and art history, Jewish studies, and the Picker Art Gallery.

The Ukrainian-born Jewish photographer Yevgeny Khaldei is credited with many iconic images of World War II, including a picture of Red Army soldiers raising the Soviet flag on the roof of the Berlin parliament. Published all over the world, this became the definitive image of the allied victory over Nazi Germany. Working for the Moscow news agency TASS, Khaldei also covered the Red Army in central Europe, the Potsdam conference, and the Nuremberg trials. This exhibition includes 40 photographs that Khaldei donated to Colgate students and faculty during his first visit to the United States in 1995, and is complemented with a documentary film featuring Yevgeny Khaldei.

The lecture “When photography was Jewish: Yevgeny Khaldei, World War II, and the Holocaust” will be delivered by David Shneer in Colgate’s Golden Auditorium, Little Hall. The speaker will investigate the little known phenomenon of Jewish photographers documenting the war and the Holocaust for the Soviet and global reading populations. His newest book project, Bearing Witness: Soviet Jewish Photographers, World War II & the Holocaust (Rutgers, 2010), looks at the lives and works of two dozen World War II military photographers to examine what kinds of photographs they took when they encountered evidence of Nazi genocide on the Eastern Front.

Shneer is associate professor of history and director of the program in Jewish studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder. His work concentrates on modern Jewish society and culture, Yiddish culture, Russian Jewish history, and Jews and sexuality. His books include Queer Jews, finalist for the Lambda Literary award; Yiddish and the Creation of Soviet Jewish Culture, finalist for the National Jewish Book Award; and New Jews: The End of the Jewish Diaspora, that has sparked discussion in publications like the Economist and the Jerusalem Post.

The Picker Art Gallery is located in the Charles A. Dana Arts Center on Lally Lane (just off 12B), on the Colgate University campus in Hamilton, NY. The gallery is open Dec. 1-11 Tuesday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday 1 to5 p.m; and by appointment Dec. 14-18. For more information on programming or hours, call 315-228-7634 or visit www.pickerartgallery.org.

World War II photographs by Yevgeny Khaldei exhibited at Colgate’s Picker Art Gallery

M3P Media LLC © 2009