The Determining Gaze

Self-determination and violence, mourning and new beginnings, reconstruction and emigration: the exhibition, which will open on 11 December 2023 at the Leibniz Institute for Jewish History and Culture - Simon Dubnow in Leipzig, sheds light on the ambivalence ofthe postwar years. It explores the origins, voids, effects, and transmission of the photographs.

The exhibition at the Leibniz Institute for Jewish History and Culture – Simon Dubnow showcases photographs of Jewish life in Poland immediately after the Holocaust. It emerged in cooperation with the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, which holds one of the most important collections on Polish Jewish history. However, Photographs are not a neutral documentation of reality. Hence, this exhibition housed at the Leipzig research institute explores what interests clients had in their choice of subject matter and how photographers directed the viewer’s gaze with their motifs and framing. What was photographed for which purposes, what was prominently staged, and what is recognizable today only with background knowledge? And how have these photographs taken at the time shaped the image of Jewish life in postwar Poland into the present day?

Opening: 11 December 2023, 7 p.m.

The exhibition can be viewed in the framework of public or reserved guided tours.

Overview of guided tours:
Tuesday, 12.12.2023, 1 p.m.
Thursday, 14.12.2023, 4 p.m.
Wednesday, 20.12.2023, 3 p.m.