In the Spring of 1947 This Week assigned David “Chim” Seymour to photograph Europe during the second anniversary of the end of World War II. His route followed the same taken by the Western Allies during their drive toward Germany, from Normandy to Berlin.
Though the guns had long gone silent, the scars of war were still visible everywhere: damaged buildings, destroyed fortifications, and discarded tanks and airplanes. Civilians, many of which wore clothing left by the US Army, were still cleaning up and adapting to life in peace-time. It was during this trip that Seymour became concerned with children in post-war Europe, predating the series of stories he shot for UNICEF in 1948.
Though Chim’s black and white images from the story have been published many times since 1947, most of these color images have never been seen before.
David Szymin was born in 1911 in Warsaw into a family of publishers that produced works in Yiddish and Hebrew. His family moved to Russia at the outbreak of the First World War, returning to Warsaw in 1919.
After studying printing in Leipzig and chemistry and physics at the Sorbonne in the 1930s, Szymin stayed on in Paris. David Rappaport, a family friend who owned the pioneering picture agency Rap, lent him a camera. One of Szymin’s first stories, about night workers, was influenced by Brassaï’s Paris de Nuit (1932). Szymin - or ‘Chim’ - began working as a freelance photographer. From 1934, his picture stories appeared regularly in Paris-Soir and Regards. Through Maria Eisner and the new Alliance agency, Chim met Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Capa.
From 1936 to 1938 Chim photographed the Spanish Civil War, and after it was over he went to Mexico on an assignment with a group of Spanish Republican émigrés. On the outbreak of the Second World War he moved to New York, where he adopted the name David Seymour. Both his parents were killed by the Nazis. Seymour served in the US Army (1942-45), winning a medal for his work in intelligence.
In 1947, along with Cartier-Bresson, Capa, George Rodger, and William Vandivert, he founded Magnum Photos. The following year he was commissioned by UNICEF to photograph Europe’s children in need. He went on to photograph major stories across Europe, Hollywood stars on European locations, and the emergence of the State of Israel. After Robert Capa’s death he became the new president of Magnum. He held this post until November 10, 1956, when, traveling near the Suez Canal to cover a prisoner exchange, he was killed by Egyptian machine-gun fire.
(Photos: © David Seymour/Magnum Photos)
Though the guns had long gone silent, the scars of war were still visible everywhere: damaged buildings, destroyed fortifications, and discarded tanks and airplanes. Civilians, many of which wore clothing left by the US Army, were still cleaning up and adapting to life in peace-time. It was during this trip that Seymour became concerned with children in post-war Europe, predating the series of stories he shot for UNICEF in 1948.
Though Chim’s black and white images from the story have been published many times since 1947, most of these color images have never been seen before.
David Szymin was born in 1911 in Warsaw into a family of publishers that produced works in Yiddish and Hebrew. His family moved to Russia at the outbreak of the First World War, returning to Warsaw in 1919.
After studying printing in Leipzig and chemistry and physics at the Sorbonne in the 1930s, Szymin stayed on in Paris. David Rappaport, a family friend who owned the pioneering picture agency Rap, lent him a camera. One of Szymin’s first stories, about night workers, was influenced by Brassaï’s Paris de Nuit (1932). Szymin - or ‘Chim’ - began working as a freelance photographer. From 1934, his picture stories appeared regularly in Paris-Soir and Regards. Through Maria Eisner and the new Alliance agency, Chim met Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Capa.
From 1936 to 1938 Chim photographed the Spanish Civil War, and after it was over he went to Mexico on an assignment with a group of Spanish Republican émigrés. On the outbreak of the Second World War he moved to New York, where he adopted the name David Seymour. Both his parents were killed by the Nazis. Seymour served in the US Army (1942-45), winning a medal for his work in intelligence.
In 1947, along with Cartier-Bresson, Capa, George Rodger, and William Vandivert, he founded Magnum Photos. The following year he was commissioned by UNICEF to photograph Europe’s children in need. He went on to photograph major stories across Europe, Hollywood stars on European locations, and the emergence of the State of Israel. After Robert Capa’s death he became the new president of Magnum. He held this post until November 10, 1956, when, traveling near the Suez Canal to cover a prisoner exchange, he was killed by Egyptian machine-gun fire.
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| FRANCE. Montebourg. 1947. WWI Memorial. |
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| FRANCE. Montebourg. 1947. |
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| FRANCE. Near Reims. 1947. A crashed US bomber in a farmer’s field. |
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| FRANCE. Normandy. 1947. Omaha Beach. |
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| FRANCE. Normandy. 1947. Omaha Beach. |
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| FRANCE. Normandy. 1947. Omaha Beach. |
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| FRANCE. Normandy. 1947. Woman holding a bottle of Calvados. |
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| FRANCE. Normandy. 1947. A farmer wearing a discarded US Army jacket. |
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| HOLLAND. Nijmegen. 1947. |
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| HOLLAND. Nijmegen. 1947. |
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| HOLLAND. Nijmegen. 1947. |
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| HOLLAND. Nijmegen. 1947. |
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| HOLLAND. Nijmegen. 1947. |
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| HOLLAND. Nijmegen. 1947. |
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| BELGIUM. 1947. A destroyed German “Panther” tank. |
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| BELGIUM. 1947. A destroyed German “Panther” tank. |
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| HOLLAND. Margraten. 1947. US airborne cemetery. |
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| BELGIUM. Bastogne. 1947. Temporary memorial for local war dead. |
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| BELGIUM. Bastogne. 1947. |
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| BELGIUM. Bastogne. 1947. |
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| BELGIUM. Bastogne. 1947. |
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| BELGIUM. Bastogne. 1947. |
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| BELGIUM. Bastogne. 1947. |
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| BELGIUM. Bastogne. 1947. |
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| BELGIUM. Bastogne. 1947. Discarded US Army clothing. |
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| BELGIUM. Bastogne. 1947. |
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| BELGIUM. Bastogne. 1947. |
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| GERMANY. Near Aachen. 1947. A destroyed US tank in the Hurtgen Forest, near the Belgian border. |
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| GERMANY. Near Aachen. 1947. German grave in the Hurtgen Forest near the Beglian border. |
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| GERMANY. Near Aachen. 1947. Smashed fortification in the Hurtgen Forest, near the Belgian border. |
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| GERMANY. Near Aachen. 1947. The Siegfried Line, German-built fortifications on the Belgian-German border. |
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| GERMANY. Near Aachen. 1947. A young guard at the Siegfried Line, German-built fortifications on the Belgian-German border. |
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| GERMANY. Berlin. 1947. |
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| GERMANY. Berlin. 1947. |
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| GERMANY. Berlin. 1947. |
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| GERMANY. Berlin. 1947. The garden of the Reich Chancellery where the bodies of Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun were cremated by their staff. |
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| GERMANY. Berlin. 1947. A German policeman points to the pit in the garden of the Reich Chancellery where the bodies of Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun were cremated by their staff. Allied occupation troops emerge from the entrance to Hitler’s bunker. |
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| GERMANY. Berlin. 1947. CBS reporter Bill Downs in front of the entrance to Hitler’s bunker. |
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| GERMANY. Berlin. 1947. An American Red Cross worker. |
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| GERMANY. Berlin. 1947. |
(Photos: © David Seymour/Magnum Photos)
Thank you for these posts, and your blog.
ReplyDeleteImpressionnant !
ReplyDeleteUnderstand that this was the SUMMER of 1947, some TWO YEARS after the end of the war
ReplyDelete