Lessons From the Frontline Yet to Learn: David "Chim" Seymour - The World & Venice 1936-56 at Palazzo Grimani

Venice, Italy, 1950 © David Seymour/Magnum Photos

(Venice, Italy) The exhibition, David "Chim" Seymour - The World and Venice 1936-56, at Palazzo Grimani is poignant and haunting, especially with two major 2023 wars currently playing in the world's background.

Chim was one of the co-founders of Magnum Photos, the most respected international photographic cooperative in the world, founded back in 1947. For over 75 years, its photographers have documented profound historical events that have upended the earth.

The Chim exhibition is a collaboration between Palazzo Grimani and Suazes, an Italian cultural organization. Both institutions also co-presented the excellent Inge Morath exhibition at Palazzo Grimani in January, 2023, which was attended by more than 30,000 people.

As I wandered from room to room and gazed at the photos, the same thought played on a loop inside my mind: "Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it." From the Spanish Civil War, to post-World War II Europe, Germany, and beyond, after viewing the horrors imprinted on the faces of innocent children and civilians photographed by Chim, it seemed the only lessons human beings have learned over the decades is how to build more sophisticated weapons. So many of the same old battles are being fought between so many of the same old powers, which occasionally switch sides.

David "Chim" Seymour, Paris, 1956 by Elliott Erwitt
Photo of image: Cat Bauer

David "Chim" Seymour was born David Szymin in Warsaw, Poland on November 20, 1911. His family were distinguished publishers who produced works in Yiddish and Hebrew. At the outbreak of the First World War, his family moved to Russia, and then returned to Warsaw in 1919.

Chim (easier to pronounce than "Szymin" and not sounding as Jewish) left Poland in 1932 to study graphic arts and printing in Leipzig until things got too risky for Jews. He went to Paris where there was an established Jewish community, and studied chemistry and physics at the Sorbonne.

Chim needed to work, and being a photo-journalist was easier than writing articles in a foreign language -- he was an intellectual who knew his way around photography.

In 1934, through Maria Eisner and the new photo agency Alliance, Chim met fellow photographers Robert Capa, and Henri Cartier-Bresson. Robert Capa was born Endre Erno Friedmann, a Hungarian Jew who would go on to be considered one of  the greatest combat and adventure photographers in history. Henri Cartier-Bresson came from a wealthy Catholic family, starting and ending his career as an artist whose passion was drawing and painting, and who used his Leica camera to capture intimate moments of ordinary people, pioneering street photography.

Though there were other founders, this trio, along with George Rodger, would become the core of Magnum Photos. Often set against the backdrop of extreme suffering, and at personal risk, their photographs captured the humanist spirit.

"Chim picked up his camera the way a doctor takes his stethoscope out of his bag, applying his diagnosis to the condition of the heart: his own was vulnerable."

                                                                                -- Henri Cartier-Bresson

Left: David "Chim" Seymour greeting Henri Cartier-Bresson, Paris, 1938
Right: David "Chim" Seymour and Robert Capa, Paris, 1952
Photo: Cat Bauer

Curated by Marco Minuz, "Chim" is divided into nine categories:

1. Celebrity - The exhibit kicks off on a light note before delving into the darkness of war. Chim shot movie stars working on Cinecittà film sets in Rome, like Sofia Loren, Audrey Hepburn, Gina Lollobrigida and Ingrid Bergman, as well as many other celebrities.

2. France, The Popular Front - 1936-39 - Workers' strikes, growing international tensions following the rise of Hitler and Nazi-fascism in Europe -- Chim documented it all.

3. Venice - 1950 - In the early 1950s Chim spent much of his time in Italy. During a stay in Venice, he captured the charms of the lagoon city, including Peggy Guggenheim and her dogs.

4. The Spanish Civil War - 1936-39 - Chim spent 30 months in Spain reporting on a war that grew into a conflict on an international scale. Franco's forces were supported by Nazi Germany and fascist Italy, while the Republicans were supported by the Soviet Union and the International Brigades. Chim's lens focused on the plight of civilians behind the front line.

Spanish Civil War, Extremadura, by David "Chim" Seymour
Spain 1936
Photo of image: Cat Bauer

5. Germany Post-World War II - In 1947, Chim headed back to Europe after the end of WWII and photographed scenes like the ruins of the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag, and Dachau concentration camp, and the German people's return to normality.

6. Europe After the Second World War - When Magnum Photos was created in 1947, the founders decided to "share out the world." Chim chose to focus on Europe, particularly Eastern Europe, documenting postwar Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia. In the 1950s, he traveled around France, Italy, Greece, and Israel.

7. War Children - In 1948, Chim was commissioned by UNICEF to document the living conditions of children in Europe three years after the end of World War II. For six months he traveled from Austria and Greece to Italy, Poland and Hungary, taking thousands of photos of children who had suffered severe physical and mental trauma, refugees, survivors of concentration camps, and other hellscapes. In some of the most dramatic images of the exhibition, he recorded the damage of war inflicted on an entire generation of innocents.

8. Egypt, Suez Canal - 1956 - On July 26, 1956, Egyptian President Nasser announced the Suez Canal had been nationalized. Three months later, on October 29, 1956, Israel invaded Sinai and the Gaza Strip with the support of France and Britain, trying to regain the Suez Canal. Chim traveled to Egypt to report on the crisis for Newsweek. He arrived in Port Said on November 7, 1956, by which time the hostilities had ceased. Together with other journalists, he documented the destruction and chaos in the city. These were the last photos he would take before losing his life three days later.

9. Israel - 1951-55 - From 1951, Chim traveled to the new State of Israel every year to document the gradual evolution of the young nation, immortalizing settlers, life on the kibbutzim, rituals and other customs and traditions. He also witnessed the industrial growth, the development of water networks and the expansion of mines and oil pipelines.

"Chim was a deeply cultured, well-read, highly intelligent, and very private person. The emotions that were bottled up in him poured out in this images of the Spanish Civil War: war-ravaged children; the living rituals of religion,; and the establishment of Israel."
                                                                            --Cornell Capa

On November 10, 1956, Chim and Paris Match photographer Jean Roy traveled 50 miles south to photograph a prisoner exchange at Al Qantara, the last post before Egyptian lines. For unknown reasons, they did not stop when Egyptian soldiers summoned them, and continued driving at full speed. As their jeep crossed the Anglo-French lines and headed toward the Egyptian lines, the two reporters were shot dead by Egyptian machine gun fire. Chim died 10 days before his 45th birthday.

David "Chim" Seymour lost his life documenting the realities of human existence on the frontlines so we can witness the repercussions of war and strife. The excellent David "Chim" Seymour Il Mondo e Venezia 1936-56 is at Palazzo Grimani until March 17, 2024.

I have written about Palazzo Grimani in English before, which might provide some interesting background, since the Region of the Veneto Minister of Culture website is (still) in Italian.

Ciao from Venezia,
Cat Bauer
Venetian Cat - The Venice Blog