# Bernard Gotfryd > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Bernard_Gotfryd > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Bernard_Gotfryd.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Gotfryd > Source revision: 1357311047 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) Polish-American photographer (1924–2016) Bernard Gotfryd Gotfryd in 1970 Born May 25, 1924 (1924-05-25) Radom, Poland Died June 3, 2016(2016-06-03) (aged 92) New York City, U.S. Occupation Photographer **Bernard Gotfryd** (May 25, 1924 – June 3, 2016) was a Polish-born American photographer, primarily associated with *[Newsweek](/source/Newsweek)*, for which he photographed celebrities, politicians, artists, and writers. ## Early life Born into a Jewish family in [Radom](/source/Radom), Gotfryd was 15 at the time of the German [invasion of Poland](/source/Invasion_of_Poland) in 1939. He watched his mother taken away, eventually to die in a concentration camp, and his grandmother's remains roll past in a pile of Jewish bodies on a cart.[1] He spent most of the war working at a photo laboratory that developed pictures taken by German officers, some of which he smuggled to members of the [Polish resistance](/source/Polish_resistance_movement_in_World_War_II).[2] He was eventually captured, and spent the final period of the war as a slave laborer in the quarries of the [Gusen concentration camp](/source/Gusen_concentration_camp) at [Mauthausen](/source/Mauthausen_concentration_camp).[3] He reunited with his brother, whom he initially failed to recognize, and sister after the war.[4] Several years later, in 1947, he emigrated to the United States, where he married a fellow survivor from Radom, in March 1952.[1] He was drafted into the [United States Army Signal Corps](/source/United_States_Army_Signal_Corps) in 1949, where he was trained as a [combat photographer](/source/Combat_photographer).[5] ## Career Following his army service, Gotfryd was hired as a photographer by *[Newsweek](/source/Newsweek)*.[2] Though many of his assignments consisted of photographing movie stars and newsmakers wherever he could find them, his distinctive perspective was more apparent when he had more time. Assigned to photograph the controversial novelist [William Styron](/source/William_Styron), as Styron's daughter [Alexandra](/source/Alexandra_Styron) later remembered, Gotfryd went beyond the assignment to capture the "cultural dissonance" of family life at Styron's home with "subtle candor."[6] In some cases he developed personal relationships with his famous subjects. Sent by *Newsweek* to shoot [Nina Simone](/source/Nina_Simone), he eventually became a close friend; Simone introduced him to [James Baldwin](/source/James_Baldwin) as "the best photographer in the world."[7] A print of Gotfryd's photograph of Simone and Baldwin is now housed at the [Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture](/source/Smithsonian_National_Museum_of_African_American_History_and_Culture).[8] ## Late writing Inspired by a 1983 visit to Poland, his first since his emigration, and his mother's exhortation the last day he saw her to "tell the world what the Nazis were doing," Gotfryd began writing brief stories of his memories of his childhood and [the Holocaust](/source/The_Holocaust).[1] These stories were eventually published as *Anton, the Dove-Fancier: And Other Tales of the Holocaust* in 1990.[9] A selection of his photographs, with the title *The Intimate Eye*, was published in 2006.[10] Upon his death, his photographs, which he willed to the public, were donated to the [Library of Congress](/source/Library_of_Congress).[2] ## Gallery - [David Ben-Gurion](/source/David_Ben-Gurion) - [Kurt Vonnegut](/source/Kurt_Vonnegut) - [Salvador Dalí](/source/Salvador_Dal%C3%AD) - [Lauren Bacall](/source/Lauren_Bacall) - [Steve Jobs](/source/Steve_Jobs) - [Catherine Deneuve](/source/Catherine_Deneuve) - [Jimmy Carter](/source/Jimmy_Carter) ## References 1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-Clavin_1-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-Clavin_1-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-Clavin_1-2) Clavin, Thomas (August 19, 1990). ["A Photographer Writes on the Holocaust"](https://www.nytimes.com/1990/08/19/nyregion/a-photographer-writes-on-the-holocaust.html). *The New York Times*. 1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-Tucker_2-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-Tucker_2-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-Tucker_2-2) Tucker, Neely (June 16, 2021). ["Free to Use and Reuse: The Photographs of Bernard Gotfryd | Timeless"](https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2021/06/free-to-use-and-reuse-the-photographs-of-bernard-gotfryd/). *The Library of Congress*. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** Gotfryd, Bernard (2000). ["My Salzburg Journey"](https://www.uvm.edu/sites/default/files/media/Spring2000.pdf) (PDF). *The Bulletin of the Center for Holocaust Studies*. **2** (4): 1–2. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** *Images from the Holocaust: a literature anthology*. Lincolnwood, Ill: NTC Pub. Group. 1997. pp. 403–409. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-8442-5920-9](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-8442-5920-9). 1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** ["Gotfryd (Bernard) papers"](https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt8q2nf3rc/entire_text/). *oac.cdlib.org*. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** Styron, Alexandra (June 16, 2012). ["Opinion | Thoughts on Fathers and Families"](https://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/17/opinion/sunday/thoughts-on-fathers-and-families.html). *The New York Times*. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-7)** Cohodas, Nadine (2010). [*Princess Noire: The Tumultuous Reign of Nina Simone*](https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5149/9780807882740_cohodas.16). University of North Carolina Press. pp. 154–155. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.5149/9780807882740_cohodas.16](https://doi.org/10.5149%2F9780807882740_cohodas.16). [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-8078-7243-7](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-8078-7243-7). [JSTOR](/source/JSTOR_(identifier)) [10.5149/9780807882740_cohodas.16](https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5149/9780807882740_cohodas.16). 1. **[^](#cite_ref-8)** ["Photograph of Nina Simone with James Baldwin"](https://nmaahc.si.edu/object/nmaahc_2011.132.5.5). *National Museum of African American History and Culture*. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-9)** Gotfryd, Bernard (1990). *Anton, the Dove Fancier: And Other Tales of the Holocaust*. New York: Washington Square Press. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-671-69137-0](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-671-69137-0). 1. **[^](#cite_ref-10)** Gotfryd, Bernard (2006). *The Intimate Eye*. New York: Riverside Book Company. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-1-878351-63-0](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-1-878351-63-0). ## External links - Media related to [Photographs by Bernard Gotfryd](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Photographs_by_Bernard_Gotfryd) at Wikimedia Commons Authority control databases International ISNI VIAF GND FAST National United States Japan Netherlands Poland Israel Academics CiNii Artists Photographers' Identities People Deutsche Biographie DDB Other SNAC 2 Yale LUX --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Bernard Gotfryd](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Gotfryd) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Gotfryd?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.