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| Selected Projects
| Morrie was foremost a humanist; that is he had a deep feeling for his fellow men and cared little about photographing scenic views or flowers. He had a sharp eye as a photographer for what would best suit a person as a subject. These characteristics made him a special kind of photographer of people whether from the private or public spheres. In his photographs of the Jews in Thessaloniki—Greeks who had escaped the Holocaust—he was in his element for he was Jewish. He sought out well-to-do individuals, poor people and odd people. They were willing to be photographed because he went about posing them in a firm but congenial manner. The backgrounds or surroundings he chose were very important to Morrie for he always sought a balance in his pictures between form and feeling. Since he did not use flash to illuminate his subjects he had to take long exposures. He gently moved a person a little this way or that way to get the best light then had him or her hold a pose. This was done in a professional and respectful manner. This is why his photographs do not have the stiffness we often see in pictures of older people, and he did not permit any clowning of the youngsters he photographed. His Thessaloniki photographs exemplify Morrie’s technical skills with the camera as well as his respect for the special people he loved to photograph. |
| By responding symbolically, I saw we had tended to respond to a visual cliché that robbed a valiant people of their individuality and complexity. We had sensed the sledgehammer logic of their condition, muttered something unassailable about how bad it was, somehow felt relieved to have paid our sociological dues. The press had long been reporting the workers’ struggle to organize. In his travels around California Camhi had often encountered the Chicano migratory workers. What he had sensed about their lives hadn’t come through in the photographs he had seen. He began to wonder why. Many photographers had portrayed the great personalities linked to the struggle—Cesar Chavez, Robert Kennedy—or the dramatic events—the strike actions and demonstrations—which had news value. In the face of the thousands of photographs already made, what more could be added? What was there still to say that would be different and meaningful? Not pathos, not news events, not the big personalities, would be his subject, but people, these particular people with their tenacity, their strength, their dedication, their ability to think through their problems, to measure the risks and the rewards of the actions. Their day-to-day activities were not so different from those of many others, Camhi felt. What was special was “the dignity and commitment that’s unique to aspiring people, the kind of belief and hope others of us have left behind.” From The Eye of Conscience: Photographers and Social Change By Milton Meltzer and Bernard Col | |
| In photography, as In life, my desire has been to know and understand people. Among the most memorable experiences I had while working on this project were the intense dialogues that took place. Far into the night dialogues—poetic, political, sociological, philosophical, religious and economic. I was welcomed into many homes, and the everyday quality of these visits had a special honesty, which I felt was important to share. Each person is the author of his or her environment; what we arrange on our walls is what we decide would be there. The environment functions as a biography and reflects our personal intensities and concerns. It has been my purpose to become part of the photograph, to enter into the equation of response. The images created are the result of our experiences of each other. A deep survey of the Mexican-American people and culture, six photographers worked for two years culminating in a 175-photograph exhibition premiering simultaneously in Chicago (Center for Contemporary Photography) and Oakland (Oakland Museum) to betoken the national character of the survey’s exploration. A vast resource of photographs, additional to the exhibit, was created and is available to curators, historians or researchers. Full exhibition is in two permanent museum collections. In addition to directing the project, Morrie Camhi was one of the six photographers. | |
| Historically, there has been a stigma attached to the personal want ad. We have been quick to imagine desperate or bizarre scenarios about “those people.” One day, killing time, I glanced through the personals. An older woman described her love of art, her capacity for warmth, her desire for travel—and for someone to share these with. If only my own mother had reached out this way, I thought, instead of her inactive acceptance of a similar condition! I began admiring the want-ad people. What they were doing was to analyze their own needs, clearly state them, and become active in creating desired change. The personal want-ad is a kind of complete portrait, often telling of inner concerns as well as appearance. To live alongside their portraits I have created portraits of my own. There are surprises. Stereotypes sometimes shatter. There are confirmations as well as contradictions of the ad’s promise. But most of all, the personal want ad people seem a lot like the rest of us—but doing something about their unique needs or preoccupations. | |
| Faces and Facets: The Jews of Greece | Food and drink are the preamble to all Greek discourse, wherever it takes place. Even during my childhood in New York, I remember that my Greek immigrant parents entertained visiting friends in this fashion. Within minutes, and seemingly from thin air, the roskitas or the dulce appeared. And then I would hear the familiar clang of the small brass coffeepot on the stove burner, announcing the coffee was on its way. Two trips to Greece were scheduled, one for photography, the other for data and writing. Hal Fischer, who also curated the final exhibition, undertook the latter trip. The culture is explored in and through the people themselves, wherever they may have resided in Greece. The remote and/or small hamlets were particularly included and all areas of Greece were germane to the breadth of the essay’s intentions. A 65-photograph exhibition was created with text materials, premiering at the Magnes Museum, Berkeley, California. The complete exhibition is in the museum’s permanent collection; lesser amounts are represented in many other collections. The book Faces and Facets contains eighty photographs and two written essays: “Recollections” by Morrie Camhi and “The Jews of Greece: An Historical Context” by Nikos Stavroulakis. |
| The Prison Experience | What it is important to realize is that I see audience and sharing as critical elements of the photography I create. I am not finished with a project once the photographs are matted and titled, but rather, after it has attained the largest and most significant audience possible. After an initial research period, there were eighteen months of photography at California’s Vacaville Prison. Alongside the photographs created were written statements, all in answer to the same question: “What do you want people to know about the prison experience?” Prisoners, their families and prison staff were photographed and all three groups wrote responses to the question. Two prisoner employees provided substantial coordination with one of them, James Harris, taking on the responsibilities of editor of The Convict’s Dictionary of Words and Phrases. Definition reviews were by a convict committee composed from all ethnic prison groupings. Two travel exhibits (45 or 70 photographs plus text materials) were created with a book, copublished in Japan and the United States. The book is often used in colleges, law libraries and by social workers. It has been used as a resource for two commercial feature films. |
... and other public, private and corporate collections. |
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