Gay Block (born 1942) is a

fine art In European academic traditions, fine art (or, fine arts) is made primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from popular art, decorative art or applied art, which also either serve some practical function (such as ...

portrait photographer, who was born in

Houston, Texas Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

. Her work has been published in books, and is collected by the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

, the

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern art, modern and contemporary art museum and nonprofit organization located in San Francisco, California. SFMOMA was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th-century art ...

, the

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), is an art museum located in the Houston Museum District of Houston, Texas. The permanent collection of the museum spans more than 5,000 years of history with nearly 80,000 works from six continents. Follo ...

, the

El Paso Museum of Art Founded in 1959, The El Paso Museum of Art (EPMA) is located in downtown El Paso, Texas. First accredited in 1972, it is the only accredited art museum within a 250-mile radius and serves approximately 100,000 visitors per year. A new buildin ...

, the

Jewish Museum (Manhattan) The Jewish Museum is an art museum housed at 1109 Fifth Avenue, in the Felix M. Warburg House, along the Museum Mile on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York City. The museum holds a collection of approximately 30,000 objects, including ...

and the

New Mexico Museum of Art The New Mexico Museum of Art is an art museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Santa Fe governed by the state of New Mexico, United States. It is one of four state-run museums in Santa Fe that are part of the Museum of New Mexico. It is located one bloc ...

Biography

Block had been interested in photography since she was a pre-teen, when she started taking pictures of her friends and family using a Brownie box camera. She recalls that she enjoyed taking candid photos and collaborating with her subjects. By the 1970s she began taking pictures of members of her own affluent

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

community in Houston. She later photographed an older Jewish community of

retirees A pensioner is a person who receives a pension, most commonly because of retirement from the workforce. This is a term typically used in the United Kingdom (along with OAP, initialism of old-age pensioner), Ireland and Australia where someone of p ...

in South Miami Beach, many of whom were

Holocaust survivor Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, its collaborators before and during World War II ...

s. Block also photographed girls at

summer camp A summer camp, also known as a sleepaway camp or residential camp, is a supervised overnight program for children conducted during the summer vacation from school in many countries. Children and adolescents who attend summer residential camps ...

. In 2006, Block re-photographed women who were the girls in her 1981 series from Camp Pinecliffe, twenty-five years earlier. Block collaborated with author and rabbi

Malka Drucker Malka Drucker (born March 14, 1945) is an American rabbi and author living in Santa Barbara, California. Overview Ordained in 1998 from the Academy for Jewish Religion, a transdenominational seminary, Drucker is the founding rabbi of HaMakom: ...

to create ''Rescuers: Portraits of Moral Courage in the Holocaust'', both a book and traveling exhibit. Block and Drucker traveled to eleven countries and photographed over 100

Christians A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the world. The words '' Christ'' and ''C ...

who had helped rescue Jews during the Holocaust. The exhibit has been seen in over fifty venues in the US and abroad, including the

, NY, in 1992. In 2003, Block's 30-year series of portraits of her mother, in photographs, video, and words, ''Bertha Alyce: Mother exPosed'', was published by

University of New Mexico Press The University of New Mexico Press (UNMP) is a university press at the University of New Mexico. It was founded in 1929 and published pamphlets for the university in its early years before expanding into quarterlies and books. Its administrativ ...

and continues as a traveling exhibit. The book, ''Bertha Alyce'', was cited as one of "Twelve Great Books Published During The Year 2003" by the editors of RALPH (The Review of Arts, Literature, Politics, and the Humanities). Her video of the material, "Bertha Alyce", was awarded People's Choice and Best Documentary by the Madrid International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival,

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. The photographs of Bertha Alyce are not considered a conventional representation of a mother/daughter relationship; instead Block's relationship with her mother is unique. Block's documentary technique is considered by the critic to be "assured, if reminiscent of Duane Michaels or

Nan Goldin Nancy Goldin (born 1953) is an American photographer and activist. Her work explores in snapshot-style the emotions of the individual, in intimate relationships, and the Bohemian style, bohemian LGBT subcultural communities, especially dealing w ...

''Rescuers of the Holocaust''

In 1986, Rabbi

Harold Schulweis Harold M. Schulweis (April 14, 1925 – December 18, 2014) was an American rabbi and author. He was the longtime spiritual Leader at Valley Beth Shalom in Encino, California. Biography Schulweis was born in the Bronx, New York City, in 1925 to s ...

, author

and Gay Block decided to document activities of non-Jewish Europeans who risked torture and death to save Jews during the Holocaust, a topic they considered both important and under-publicized. Their work would eventually led to a book ('' Rescuers: Portraits of Moral Courage in the Holocaust''), as well as an exhibition of Block's, named ''Gay Block: Rescuers of the Holocaust'' travelled to numerous museums, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX, University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque, NM, Houston Center for Photography, Houston, TX.

References

External links

Official siteGay Block
in th
Jewish Women's Archive's: Jewish Women and the Feminist Revolution
{{DEFAULTSORT:Block, Gay 1942 births Living people American LGBTQ photographers Artists from Houston American women photographers LGBTQ people from New Mexico Jewish American artists American fine art photographers 21st-century American Jews 21st-century American women