Clemens Kalischer (March 30, 1921 – June 9, 2018) was an American photojournalist and
art photographer.[1] He was born in Germany and immigrated to the United States.
Kalischer was born in
Lindau,
Germany. He immigrated to France via Switzerland (1933) and then to the United States via Morocco (1942). His family fled from Berlin in 1933 and settled in Paris. He was taken prisoner in France in 1939 and survived three years of forced labor in eight different work camps (1939–1942). He was reunited with his father in the last camp and his family escaped to the U.S. with the aid of
Varian Fry. From 1944 through 1946 he studied art at the
Cooper Union. Since 1951, Kalischer lived in
Stockbridge, Massachusetts. He married Angela Wottitz in 1956. They had two children.
Career
Kalischer was a member of ASPP (American Society of Picture Professionals); a member of One by One (an international dialogue group between survivors and perpetrators of
the Holocaust) and worked as a freelance photographer of The New York Times, Newsweek, Life, Fortune, Du, The Sun, Yankee, Coronet, Country Journal, Moment, Vermont Life, In Context, Jubilee, Yes, Orion, Ploughshares, Common Ground, Architectural Forum, Places, Urban Design International, Progressive Architectural, and Time magazine. His photograph of a little boy with his puppy at the base of apartment steps on the West Side, New York, was selected by
Edward Steichen for the world-touring
Museum of Modern Art exhibition The Family of Man exhibition, seen by 9 million visitors.[2]
His series of photographs of people arriving in New York City from
displaced persons camps in post-World War II Europe, taken in 1947 and 1948, was his most recognized work.[3] Many are included in Clemens Kalischer, edited by Denis Brudna and Norbert Bunge (
Hatje Cantz).
In 2009 he revealed that when in the 1950s he'd settled in Stockbridge that as a young photographer he had met
Norman Rockwell who had a studio next door and had taken reference photographs for the artist.[4][5]
The Image Gallery
In Stockbridge, Massachusetts, he opened a gallery in 1965, The Image Gallery, to represent new artists. The gallery is still open, showing works by Kalischer. His work spanned over 70 years of images. His freelance work focused on music (The Marlboro Music Festival, The Lenox School of Jazz, South Mountain Music Festival, Tanglewood, and many more), the arts (Black Mountain College, Pilobolus, The Flaherty Film Seminar, The Berkshire Theater Group, and many more), architecture, farming (CSA's, Italian Piedmont, slow-food movement, Vermont, and more), nature, portraiture, images form the U.S. south, urban and rural areas of the U.S., images from Europe, India, Cuba, and Israel.
Kalischer died on June 9, 2018, in Lenox, Massachusetts, aged 97.[6][7]
Books
La montagna dell'esodo. Racconti fotografici di Clemens Kalischer Museo Nazionale della Montagna, 1996.
ISBN88-85903-60-6.
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
Maison Robert Doisneau, Paris, France
Sal Oppenheim Collection, Munich, Germany
Colby College, Waterville, ME
The German Emigration Museum, Bremerhaven, Germany
Museo Nazionale della Montagna, Torino, Italy
Grants
National Council of Churches
Experiment in International Living
Cambridge Seven Aquarium
Edwin Jaffe Foundation Grant for Holocaust Gathering
Frank Taplin Grant for "Institute for Urban Design"
References
^"Clemens Kalischer". International Center of Photography. 2 March 2016. Retrieved 2018-06-13.
^Steichen, Edward; Steichen, Edward, 1879-1973, (organizer.); Sandburg, Carl, 1878-1967, (writer of foreword.); Norman, Dorothy, 1905-1997, (writer of added text.); Lionni, Leo, 1910-1999, (book designer.); Mason, Jerry, (editor.); Stoller, Ezra, (photographer.); Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.) (1955).
The family of man : the photographic exhibition. Published for the Museum of Modern Art by Simon and Schuster in collaboration with the Maco Magazine Corporation. {{
cite book}}: |author6= has generic name (
help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (
link)
^Displaced persons, New York, 1948; a photographic gallery of the work of Clemens Kalischer. (2010). The Hedgehog Review, 12(1), 75-83.
^Anonymous. (2009). Norman Rockwell's Cast Of Children Revealed. Weekend Edition Sunday (NPR), Nov 29, 2009.
^Linda Charlton. (1984). The Norman Rockwell Flap. Wall Street Journal, p. 1.