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CHIM: A web biography of David Seymour | |
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Chim's life ended abruptly at the peak of his creative powers. Many of his subjects seem to have been barely touched by his sensitive eye and skilled hand with the camera. Having lost his parents, his native land, his youthful hopes and ideals to violence, war and its aftermath, it seems almost inevitable that Chim should have died violently. For the man whose wish was "peace, peace", there was no peace. -Judith Friedberg Chim, a Man of Peace |
Chim greeting Henri Cartier-Bresson, Paris, 1938 Copyright 1998 David Seymour Estate |
Air Raid Shelter, Island of Minorca, 1937 Copyright 1998 David Seymour Estate
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To Chim, wars -- all wars -- became an enormous crime against the children. His photographs are monuments of this stark truth, a warning, a permanent cry to remember forever that all children are one, the world over. -Peter Pollack |
Chim -- was Chim. He not only defied further characterization, he evaded it. An enigma even to his friends, he had no enemies. Most of his own family was destroyed so he adopted his friends' families all over the world. He knew their birthdays and anniversaries, and just what presents to send or bring. He had the gift of quiet friendship. As a photographer he was soft. He could not take an unkind picture intentionally, and if he did so accidentally, he killed it. And that was all he killed. He loved life. He loved people -- children and animal people most. He was never fully appreciated. Bob Capa had said, "Chim is the really good photographer." But Chim spurned public praise. -John G. Morris |
Striking workers dancing in factory courtyard, Paris, 1936 Copyright 1998 David Seymour Estate |
David Seymour Copyright 1998 David Seymour Estate |
When I last saw him in 1956, Chim had the look of a man prematurely aged under the burden of the stormy events of his time, saddened by disillusionment in the ideals and causes for which men of his generation sacrificed their lives. |
