Chasing Portraits was in New York City all last week. It was an amazing and fabulous trip! A bit of a photo montage from the trip.
The Chasing Portraits book will be published by Penguin Random House in 2016. I went to have lunch with my editor. He’s delightful, it was fabulous, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.
I filmed several interviews while in the city. I spoke to Nick O’Donnell (Sullivan and Worcester, LLP), Anna Rubin (Holocaust Claims Processing Office), and Pierre Ciric (The Ciric Law Firm, PLLC). Each of them delightful, engaged, and so very informative. We talked about the Washington Principles, the Terezin Declaration, and issues regarding Holocaust era looted art. Slawomir Grunberg shot some great footage, there were lots of fabulous quotes, and I hope a little bit from each interview ends up in the film!
In addition to filming these three interviews, on Saturday I met with a woman who is related to my family on my great-grandmother’s side. After the Holocaust my great-grandmother, Perla, gifted a Rynecki painting and a wood carving to this woman’s father in Israel. Many years ago she brought both with her to the United States. I knew from grandpa George’s memoir that my great-grandfather had worked in wood, clay, and in the late thirties, the first plastics, but I had never seen these pieces. This lovely photograph was taken by photojournalist, Chuck Fishman. The carving is exquisite in its details. Each segment a unique piece, assembled together in a puzzle to create this man, a tailor, we think. His right arm stretched outwards, as if pulling an imaginary thread taut as he works on a piece of fabric draped over his left leg.
Always a joy to work with Slawomir Grunberg and Catherine Greenblatt. These two have filmed with me in Poland (twice), Israel, and now New York.
