Chim: Children of War
Carole Naggaris a poet and photography historian based in New York City. Born in Cairo, Naggar has authored many works on photographers and their medium. Among her recent books areGeorge Rodger: An Adventure in Photography, 1908-1995(Syracuse 2003), the memoirEgypte Retour(Nahar Misraim 2007),Werner Bischof: Carnets de Route(Delpire 2008), andDavid Seymour Chim(Photopoche 2011). She wrote the lead essay forChrister Stromholm: Post Scriptum(Max Strom 2012), and is currently working on a biography of Chim. She has been a regular contributor to Aperture since 1988.Among the great masters of European photography,CHIM (David Seymour)endures as a legend. Along with Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, and George Rodger, he was a co-founder of photojournalism’s famous cooperative, Magnum Photos, and occupies a special place in the canon. Born David Syzmin in Warsaw, Poland, he moved to Paris to study art, and soon gravitated to photography to begin the epic scope of his life’s work—a tableau of haunting social portraits and critiques of the turbulent events of the twentieth century ranging from the Front Populaire to the Spanish Civil War, from the devastating aftermath of World War II to the birth of Israel. Chim was tragically killed by machine-gun fire in Suez in 1956.CHIM: Children of Warincludes over 180 black and white images culled from his work just after WWII, shot for the then-newly-formed foundation UNICEF.