Clemens Kalischer


Clemens Kalischer was an American photojournalist and art photographer. He was born in Germany and immigrated to the United States.
His series of photographs of displaced persons arriving in New York City from displaced persons camps in post-World War II Europe, taken in 1947 and 1948, was his most recognized work.

Life and work

Kalischer was born in Lindau, Germany. He immigrated to France via Switzerland and then to the United States via Morocco. His family fled from Berlin in 1933 and settled in Paris. He was taken prisoner in France in 1939 and survived three years of forced labor in eight different work camps. He was reunited with his father in the last camp and his family escaped to the U.S. with the aid of Varian Fry. From 1944 through 1946 he studied art at the Cooper Union. Since 1951, Kalischer lived in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. He married Angela Wottitz in 1956. They had two children.

Career

Kalischer was a member of ASPP ; a member of One by One and worked as a freelance photographer of The New York Times, Newsweek, Life, Fortune, Du, The Sun, Yankee, Coronet, Country Journal, Moment, Vermont Life, In Context, Jubilee, Yes, Orion, Ploughshares, Common Ground, Architectural Forum, Places, Urban Design International, Progressive Architectural, and Time magazine. His photograph of a little boy with his puppy at the base of apartment steps on the West Side, New York, was selected by Edward Steichen for the world-touring Museum of Modern Art exhibition The Family of Man exhibition, seen by 9 million visitors.
His series of photographs of people arriving in New York City from displaced persons camps in post-World War II Europe, taken in 1947 and 1948, was his most recognized work. Many are included in Clemens Kalischer, edited by Denis Brudna and Norbert Bunge.
In 2009 he revealed that when in the 1950s he'd settled in Stockbridge that as a young photographer he had met Norman Rockwell who had a studio next door and had taken reference photographs for the artist.

The Image Gallery

In Stockbridge, Massachusetts, he opened a gallery in 1965, The Image Gallery, to represent new artists. The gallery is still open, showing works by Kalischer. His work spanned over 70 years of images. His freelance work focused on music, the arts, architecture, farming, nature, portraiture, images form the U.S. south, urban and rural areas of the U.S., images from Europe, India, Cuba, and Israel.
Kalischer died on June 9, 2018 in Lenox, Massachusetts, aged 97.

Books

Solo exhibitions

Kalischer's work is held in the following public collections: