2005 Infinity Award: Publication

Born in 1910, Henryk Ross was employed as a photographer by the Department of Statistics for the Jewish Council within the Lodz ghetto during the Holocaust.  His use of an official camera, and his status within the ghetto administration, gave him unparalleled access into the daily lives of hundreds of Jews, whose lives he recorded in the form of thousands of prints and negatives. In 1944, just prior to the closure of the Lodz ghetto, Ross buried this treasure trove of images to leave a historical record of what had passed.

After the war, he dug up this collection. Only a small portion of more than 3,000 negatives would be made available by the photographer and testify to the atrocities of the Holocaust. The vast majority of Ross’s photographs were not released until after his death in Israel in 1991, when they were acquired by the Archive of Modern Conflict in London. These photographs contain the expected portrayals of the horrible conditions within the ghetto, but also include poignant and intimate portraits of everyday life–a wedding feast, children playing on the street, and mothers with their children.

Lodz Ghetto Album spans the entirety of his collection, which is the most extensive body of ghetto photographs by a single photographer. The book contains 100 images selected by Martin Parr and Timothy Prus, and accompanied by Ross’s handwritten captions.  Lodz Ghetto Album, published by Chris Boot in association with the Archive of Modern Conflict, includes a foreword written by best-selling Holocaust expert Robert-Jan van Pelt and an introduction by historian Thomas Weber. Chris Boot, former director of Magnum Photos London and Magnum Photos New York, published more than 12 titles under his own publishing company since 2002.