de Saisset Museum Presents Michael Kenna's Document of Nazi Camps

Business Wire, Sept 7, 2005

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- The de Saisset Museum at Santa Clara University will feature a moving exhibition of photographs by English photographer Michael Kenna that documents the physical legacy of the Nazi concentration camps.

Impossible to Forget, the Nazi Camps Fifty Years After: Photographs by Michael Kenna is a collection of 88 images, selected from the thousands Kenna photographed during his travels across Europe. The exhibit will be on view from Oct. 1 to Nov. 20, 2005.

In addition, the de Saisset will also host Multiply by Six Million: A Personal Perspective on the Holocaust: Portraits of Survivors from the Legacy Project by Evvy Eisen.

"While their individual artistic approaches are very different, both featured photographers -- Michael Kenna and Evvy Eisen -- share a similar important goal: to educate people about the Holocaust and to ultimately prevent it from happening again," said Karen Kienzle, curator of the de Saisset Museum.

Kenna was inspired to start the project while at school at the Banbury School of Art in England. He saw a haunting photograph of a mountain of shaving brushes at Auschwitz produced by a fellow student. The image resonated deeply with him -- he found it "impossible to forget."

Born after World War II, Kenna belongs to a generation of artists who did not experience the Holocaust or World War II directly. Kenna documents the aging concentration camps as sites of remembrance, conscientiously creating images of commemoration, contemplation, and meditation.

The images in the exhibition are treated with great sensitivity and feature his characteristic style of angular perspectives, dramatic composition and atmospheric lighting. Sometimes discomforting to view, Kenna's images invite viewers to look and engage with the subject matter without shock.

Impossible to Forget: The Nazi Camps Fifty Years After is organized by Patrimoine Photographic, Paris, with the support of the French Ministry of Culture, and is toured by Curatorial Assistance Traveling Exhibitions (CATE), Los Angeles. The de Saisset Museum will host Michael Kenna in a free public lecture on Wed., Nov. 9 at 6 p.m. at SCU's Sobrato Commons.

The Multiply by Six Million exhibition features Inverness-based photographer Evvy Eisen's decades-long project to create portraits of Holocaust survivors and collect their personal histories. The project now includes 200 works, 50 of which will be in this exhibition at the de Saisset Museum and another 20 in the companion exhibit at SCU's Orradre Library.

Each portrait in the Multiply by Six Million exhibit is accompanied by an edited version of the subject's description of his/her experiences before, during, and after the Holocaust. While strikingly beautiful in composition and tonality, these photographs transcend the simple portrait and offer a profound viewing experience. Each survivor looks directly into the lens -- and thereby at the viewer -- exposing him/herself with a powerful directness that demands appreciation and understanding.

The de Saisset Museum will also co-sponsor a class for members of the Osher Institute for lifelong learning: Representing the Holocaust. For more information, visit www.scu.edu/osher/.> About the de Saisset Museum

The de Saisset Museum at Santa Clara University is the South Bay's free museum of art and history. The museum was founded adjacent to the Mission Santa Clara de Asis on the Santa Clara University campus in 1955 and is one of only two museums in the South Bay accredited by the American Association of Museums. The de Saisset Museum collects, preserves, exhibits, and interprets objects of art and history for the educational and cultural enrichment of all people. The museum achieves its mission through an active program of exhibitions, collections, education programs, and publications.

About Santa Clara University

Santa Clara University, a comprehensive Jesuit, Catholic university located in California's Silicon Valley, offers its 8,213 students' rigorous undergraduate curricula in arts and sciences, business, and engineering, plus master's and law degrees. Distinguished nationally by the fourth-highest graduation rate among all U.S. masters' universities, California's oldest higher-education institution demonstrates faith-inspired values of ethics and social justice. More information is online at www.scu.edu.