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17/3/2006

David Seymour

Corcoran Gallery Art, Washington

Reflections from the Heart, 75 photographs

The Corcoran Gallery of Art, in partnership with the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography, Rochester and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), presents Reflections from the Heart, a survey exhibition of 75 photographs taken by founding Magnum photographer David Seymour, also known as Chim. Organized by Tom Beck, UMBC curator and leading scholar of Seymour’s art, the exhibition will be on view at the Corcoran Gallery of Art from March 18 through June 4, 2006.

This small retrospective is organized chronologically and showcases many of the photojournalistic black and white images for which Chim is best known. Also exhibited for the first time are several of Chim’s rare color images. A new publication, David Seymour (Chim) (Phaidon, Fall 2005), accompanies the exhibition and features text and captions by scholar and curator, Tom Beck. This is the first exhibition of Seymour’s work since the 1996 retrospective organized by the International Center of Photography, New York.

“Chim aimed to tell the heart-breaking and heart-warming stories of life through his photographs," said Tom Beck, Chief Curator, University of Maryland, Baltimore County. “His work was revolutionary at the time and still speaks today to those who encounter his images."

When the political and economic upheaval in Europe in the 1930s dashed Seymour’s dreams of completing a science curriculum at the Sorbonne, he borrowed a camera from a family friend and between 1933 and 1956 helped redefine photojournalism. Seymour had no formal photography training, but his work was marked by an acute sense of history and the humanistic ideals of his time.

Born in Warsaw, Poland, Dawid Szymin grew up surrounded by art, music and literature. After he moved to Paris in 1931, he soon became a photojournalist and adopted the professional moniker “CHIM," a French phonetic abbreviation of his surname.

He began a lifelong career as a photojournalist in 1934 for the left-leaning French magazine, Regards. At that time, Chim plunged into a world undergoing massive redefinition. Mass-appeal magazines proliferated photojournalism with the introduction of faster and cheaper production methods. The magazines also included more photographic illustrations than ever before in part due to the “picture story" concept and the use of the Leica camera. With this revolutionary, miniature camera, innovative photographers were able to capture the less formal, more spontaneous images that became popular during this era.

At the start of World War II Chim became a U.S. citizen and joined the United States Army as a photo-interpreter, taking the name David Robert Seymour to avoid Nazi reprisals against his family in occupied Poland.

Seymour was very well educated, fluent in several languages and had deep affinities for different countries and their peoples. In covering many important subjects and historical moments, including the plight of the French working class, organization of the socialist Front Populaire, the Spanish Civil War, World War II, post-war life in Italy and Greece, early evolution of the state of Israel and the Suez Canal crisis, Seymour aimed to inform his audience so that they might better understand the potential of the world. His images were published in leading magazines, such as Life, Paris Match, This Week and Regards from 1933 to 1956, and were noted as rarely posed and achieved without affectation or manipulation.

Seymour loved photographing people going about their lives, often under difficult circumstances such as war and its aftermath, and revealing their humanity. His photographs depicting the physically and spiritually maimed children of Europe attracted worldwide attention to the suffering of these forgotten victims of war. He is perhaps best remembered for his body of work referred to as Chim’s Children. UNESCO and UNICEF commissioned this body of work in 1948 dealing with the plight of children in post-war Europe. Many of these moving images were published in magazines around the world and earned Seymour a reputation as the quintessential empathetic photojournalist.

In 1947, with Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, George Rodger and others, Chim became a founding member of Magnum Photos, Inc., the pioneering international photojournalist cooperative that continues to set standards in international photojournalism today. The company’s aim was editorial independence: to be first in concept, quality and timing, and to place their stories all over the world through their own offices.

The famous photographer, Henri Cartier-Bresson, gave the greatest tribute to his friend when he said, “Chim picked up his camera the way a doctor takes his stethoscope out of his bag, applying his diagnosis to the condition of the heart. His own was vulnerable."

“Seymour is considered a pioneer of small camera photo-reportage and humanistic documentary photography," said Phillip Brookman, Corcoran Senior Curator of Photography and Media Arts. “His images provide an eloquent testimony to the strength and vulnerability of humankind."

Some of his best photos capture the many poignant and dramatic events of the twentieth century. At the same time, Seymour was highly regarded as an editorial portraitist. During the 1950s he photographed many politicians, musicians, authors and actors for various magazines. Portraits of Ingrid Bergman, Sophia Loren, Arturo Toscanini and Bernard Berenson, among others, are included in Reflections from the Heart.

CURATORS
Tom Beck, Chief Curator, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, is curator of the exhibition. Coordinating curator at the Corcoran Gallery of Art is Phillip Brookman, Senior Curator of Photography and Media Arts.

PRESS PREVIEW
A press preview of the exhibition is scheduled for Tuesday, March 14, 2006 at 10 a.m. For more information or to RSVP, please call Liz Bradley at (202) 639-1867 or email PR@corcoran.org.

EXHIBITION ITINERARY
After closing at the Corcoran, the exhibition will be on display at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County from September 11 to December 11, 2006 and at the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography, Rochester from January 21 to April 30, 2007.

The Corcoran Gallery of Art is located at New York Avenue and 17th Street, NW, Washington, D.C. and is open Wednesdays - Sundays from 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. and until 9 p.m. on Thursdays. The museum is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, but open on holiday Mondays. Admission to the Corcoran is: $8.00 for adults; $6.00 for senior citizens and U.S. military personnel; $4 for students with current ID and $3 for Member guests. Admission is always free for Members and children under 12. Admission is “pay as you wish" on Thursdays after 5 p.m.

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