Frédéric Brenner Explained

Frédéric Brenner
Birth Date:1959
Birth Place:Paris, France
Nationality:French
Field:Photography

Frédéric Brenner (born 1959) is a French photographer known for his documentation of Jewish communities around the world.[1] His work has been exhibited internationally, among others, at the International Center of Photography in New York, the Musée de l'Élysée in Lausanne, Rencontres d'Arles in Arles, the Brooklyn Museum in New York, and the Joods Historisch Museum in Amsterdam.

In 1996, Brenner created an installation on Ellis Island, in New York, featuring several prominent Jewish Americans, including Lauren Bacall, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Mark Spitz and Mayor Ed Koch among others. The installation, and events leading up to it, was filmed by the documentary director Kevin Weyl.

Early life and education

Brenner was born in Paris and grew up in France. In 1981, Brenner received a B.A. in French Literature and Social Anthropology from the Paris-Sorbonne University.[2] He went on to study at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales and received a M.A. in Social Anthropology, also awarded by the Sorbonne.[2]

Brenner is the recipient of the Niépce Prize and his book Diaspora: Homelands in Exile won the 2004 National Jewish Book Award in Visual Arts.[3] [4] [5]

Career

At age 19, Brenner began photographing Orthodox Jews in the Mea Shearim neighborhood of Jerusalem.[6] Initially, he believed this was "authentic Judaism," but his approach quickly evolved into an exploration of the multiplicities of dissonant identities.[6]

In 1981, Brenner began photographing Jewish communities around the world, exploring what it means to live and survive with a portable identity and how Jews adopted the traditions and manners of their home countries and yet remained part of the Jewish people. He spent 25 years chronicling the diaspora of the Jews across the world from Rome to New York, India to Yemen, Morocco to Ethiopia, Sarajevo to Samarkand.[7] Brenner has published five books and directed three films. His work has been shown in museums and galleries around the world. He has been represented by Howard Greenberg Gallery in New York since 1990.

Brenner’s opus Diaspora: Homelands in Exile was published as a two-volume set of photographs and texts by HarperCollins in 2003 and appeared in four foreign editions. Diaspora was also a major exhibition, which opened in New York at the Brooklyn Museum in 2003 and traveled to nine other cities in America, Europe and Mexico. In reviewing the book, The New Yorker wrote: "Brenner's work—elegiac, celebratory, irreverent—transcends portraiture, representing instead a prolonged, open-ended inquiry into the nature of identity and heritage."[8] NPR's Robert Siegel has described Brenner's work as "a celebration of the diversity and complexity of diaspora."[9]

In 2006, Brenner founded This Place, a collective photography project aimed at recontextualizing Israel from multiple perspectives.[10] The photographers working on this project include Wendy Ewald, Martin Kollar, Josef Koudelka, Jungjin Lee, Gilles Peress, Fazal Sheikh, Stephen Shore, Rosalind Solomon, Thomas Struth, Jeff Wall, and Nick Waplington. This Place will be exhibited internationally, beginning at the DOX Centre for Contemporary Art in Prague in the fall of 2014.[11]

Bibliography

Filmography

Exhibitions

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: Estrin. James. Embracing Ambiguity in Israel. The New York Times. 9 April 2014 . 9 June 2014.
  2. Web site: Biography. fredericbrenner.com. 9 June 2014.
  3. Web site: Frederic Brenner. MACK Books. 9 June 2014.
  4. Web site: National Jewish Book Award winners. National Jewish Book Award. 9 June 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20180711093502/https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/Default.aspx?PageID=9793704&A=SearchResult&SearchID=6824599&ObjectID=9793704&ObjectType=1. 11 July 2018. dead.
  5. Web site: Past Winners. Jewish Book Council. en. 2020-01-25.
  6. News: Goodstein. Laurie. Relentless Seeker of the Authentic Jew. The New York Times. 8 October 2003 . 9 June 2014.
  7. News: Guilt Free and Glorious. Wall Street Journal. 9 June 2014.
  8. Diaspora. The New Yorker. 27 October 2003.
  9. Web site: Siegel. Robert. Photo Book Examines Breadth of Jewish Diaspora. National Public Radio. 9 June 2014.
  10. Web site:
  11. Web site: This Place. This Place. 9 June 2014.
  12. Book: Diaspora. WorldCat. 63172049 . 14 July 2014.
  13. Web site: Diaspora (DVD + CD ROM). Kino Lorber Edu. 14 July 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20140715062918/http://www.kinolorberedu.com/film.php?id=715. 15 July 2014. dead.
  14. Web site: Fototentoonstelling Frederic Brenner. Joods Historisch Museum. 14 July 2014.
  15. Web site: Photographs by Frédéric Brenner. International Center of Photography. 14 July 2014.
  16. Web site: Exhibitions: Rencontres d'Arles. The Rencontres d’Arles. 14 July 2014. 14 May 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20140514235144/http://www.rencontres-arles.com/C.aspx?VP3=CMS3&VF=ARL_125_VForm&FRM=Frame%3AARL_428&LANGSWI=1&LANG=English. dead.
  17. Web site: Artists: Frederic Brenner. Howard Greenberg Gallery. 14 July 2014.
  18. Web site: Exhibitions: The Jewish Journey. Brooklyn Museum. 14 July 2014.
  19. Web site: UN Photo Exhibition. United Nations. 14 July 2014.
  20. Web site: Zerheilt Fotofragmenten van Berlijn. Joods Museum. 21 July 2022.