Carrier of heavy loads, Lodz

The full negative frame of this image includes two men: a day laborer in tattered clothing, seen here, and a man wearing a fine suit, tie, and hat, holding a briefcase on the left. The well-dressed man was cropped out of this, the only extant print made of the photograph, providing insight into Vishniac’s editorial choices in representing Jewish life in eastern Europe. The 120 original negative is a perfect square, yet the resulting print is a tightly cropped rectangle.