Triumph Over Tragedy: Faces of the Holocaust

Triumph Over Tragedy: Faces of the Holocaust will debut at the Janice Charach Epstein Gallery in the JCC, as the first of what will become a traveling exhibit featuring the portraiture of Monni Must in an effort to raise money to help people heal after tragedy.

                After the devastating and unexpected death of her eldest daughter, Miya, celebrated portrait photographer Monni Must embarked on a quest to find a reason to go on in the face of unspeakable tragedy. She photographed and interviewed Holocaust survivors, learning from them how to build lives of beauty and meaning despite the devastations they experienced.

                This project – which created her first book, Living Witnesses – has expanded to become a global effort to record the stories and triumphs of survivors. This year, Must created the non-profit A Dime & A Penny Foundation, in memory of Miya Jo Must and Billy Jacobs, Must’s father. The foundation raises money and creates books and exhibits to provide others inspiration and support in the wake of tragedy.

                Living Witnesses 2 will feature more than 300 survivors from around the world, in portrait and in story. The book will be accompanied by a curriculum so that it may be used for educational purposes in communities that seek to remember and learn from the atrocities of the Holocaust.

                The September exhibit includes portraits, profiles and a slide show from the Living Witnesses 2 collection.

                Monni Must has been a portrait photographer for more than 30 years. Her artistic, stunning work has appeared all over the world. Her for-profit business, Naturally Monni, is located in Sylvan Lake, Michigan. www.naturallymonni.com.