Last week, the Detour Gallery in New York City debuted “Borrowed Spotlight,” an exhibition and book series dedicated to highlighting the stories of living Holocaust survivors.
The exhibition, shot by fashion photographer Bryce Thompson, showcases portraits of 18 pairs of Holocaust survivors in conversation with celebrities like Cindy Crawford, David Schwimmer and Billy Porter. Pairing these survivors with iconic figures in popular culture allows for an emphasis on their stories, and supports the goal of “Borrowed Light” to “preserve the memory of the Holocaust while educating and inspiring action against hate,” according to a press release.
Each portrait feels candid in its own way, allowing viewers a glimpse into how the discussion between each pair may have been. A portrait of Gabriella Karin and actress Jennifer Garner, for example, showcased a heartfelt conversation between the two. “If you don’t tell your story, people won’t know,” a quote from Karin’s conversation reads on one of the exhibition’s walls.
Jennifer Garner & Gabriella Karin. (Bryce Thompson)
94-year-old Karin was sent to live in a convent in Bratislava during the Holocaust until Russian troops liberated Slovakia from Nazi occupation. One portrait of 92-year-old Yetta Kane in conversation with Kat Graham shows the famous actress brought to tears by her story. Kane was sent to a work camp in Siberia during the Holocaust, and first encountered Nazis when she was only eight years old.
Kat Graham & Yetta Kane. (Bryce Thompson)
Other photographs in the exhibition consist of close-up shots of some of the survivors’ hands, including one where a survivor’s serial number tattoo is visible. These numbers were tattooed onto concentration camp prisoners at the Auschwitz complex, and were used as a form of identification.
“When I got my tattoo, I had no name anymore,” a quote from survivor Joseph Alexander reads at the exhibition. “That number was my name.”
“Borrowed Spotlight” also consists of a companion book, which is currently on sale, where viewers can read the survivors’ stories as well as transcripts from the dialogue that happened during the photoshoots. In the book’s introduction, Thompson writes about the experience of capturing these moments on camera and the engagement between survivors and celebrity figures in hopes of bringing their stories to a wider audience.
“Throughout this journey, I’ve photographed conversations where unimaginable horrors were recounted,” Thompson wrote. “Yet, more often than not, these stories concluded with triumphant smiles — reminders that every day has been a gift, never taken for granted.”
Viewers of “Borrowed Spotlight” are privy to these smiles, a sign of hope and resilience in spite of the horrors endured by these Holocaust survivors.
(Photo Courtesy of Sabrina Steck/BFA.com)