Red Spotted Purple: Roman Vishniac’s Science Work

ICP at Mana’s inaugural artist-in-residence Claudia Sohrens—a Brooklyn-based artist born in Hamburg, whose practice examines the role of the artist as researcher, archivist, producer, and cultural activist—was given unfettered access to ICP’s collections and invited to mine its archives. 

Red Spotted Purple: Roman Vishniac’s Science Work is the result of Sohrens’s discovery of a little-known body of work by photographer Roman Vishniac (1897–1990). Sohrens was enchanted by Vishniac’s mounted prints, which had been used as display boards by scientific societies and research institutes, and she was drawn to the wordplay and poetry of his captions.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.