Vladimir

05Apr12

I’ve always seen it as my obligation to dive into my family’s secrets, perhaps in a quest to figure out what cast the long shadows that have always hung over it. With my mom’s family that was easy. There were archival documents, references, a long paper trail. My father’s family always seemed bland in comparison. [...]

Filed under: Father, History, Russia, Third Reich, World War II   |  Closed

The whisperers

14Dec11

I lived in Berlin for a year just before the wall came down, the only time I lived in Germany as an adult. It was a strange time, for many reasons.  But what stood out, unforgettably, were people’s faces. They looked distorted, like George Grosz drawings, as if they had put on a mask, but [...]

Filed under: Cemeteries, History, photography, Russia, Youth   |  Closed
Tags: 1989, Berlin, Brighton Beach, cemetery, faces, gravestones, Jewish, mortality, New York City, Orlando Figes, portrait photography, Russia, suffering, The Whisperers, Washington Cemetery (Brooklyn)

Blijf hier, Josephus Thimister

07Jun11

One of the Fall 2011 collections I couldn’t stop thinking about was Josephus Thimister’s. His name is half the reason I am so mesmerized. Josephus Melchior Thimister is just a beautiful Dutch name with a medieval sheen. I speak Dutch, so I can really roll it off my tongue. What a marvellous designer and what a strange odyssey [...]

Filed under: Fashion designers, History, Russia   |  Closed
Tags: Antwerp, collections, fashion, Josephus Thimister, World War I