So far, 2020 has been an unprecedented and unusual time for everyone. I want to begin this newsletter by saying I truly hope you and your family, and your colleagues, are safe in this very difficult moment.

Lockdown has given me perspective and time to consider what is important in life and the work I have done during my career. In 2007, along with my neighbour Jacki Reason and her friend Jan Marsh, we launched Portraits for Posterity – Photographs of Holocaust Survivors in Great Britain.

Twelve years since our debut exhibition at London’s City Hall and seventy-five years since the systematic murder of over six million Jews by Nazi Germany and its collaborators, we have today launched a Kickstarter campaign to publish this major collection of portraits and first-hand testimony in hardback book form.

The Book

Giving our time for free, we began by photographing our friends Roman and Susie Halter and, with their help, expanded the project to include a total of 101 Holocaust Survivors, all of which have been exhibited at civic, religious and educational venues across the country.

Meeting and listening to the Survivors individually was moving and memorable. Collectively, they represent a vanishing generation. It is therefore essential that we create a permanent record, as a contribution to ensuring that the lessons of the past are learned, and such atrocities are never repeated.

By creating images of the few, this book will provide a permanent memorial that also commemorates the millions who perished without portraits.

It features significant participation by the victims themselves. It will support future endeavours to educate both young and old about the Holocaust and genocide and provide tomorrow’s scholars with access to a major collection of first-hand testimony. By creating a book of memorable portraits, Portraits for Posterity aims to provide a highly visual, flexible and mainstream gateway to this historical record. Each portrait is accompanied by an archive photograph and a short biography drawn from the sitter’s own words, together with their message for the 21st century.

We thank you for your time and support. Please share this campaign with your friends and colleagues or support us directly by pledging for one of the rewards listed on the campaign page.

Matt, Jacki and Jan