Clemens Kalischer

Person
Biography
Clemens Kalischer was a world-renowned German-born photographer who made his home in the Berkshires for more than sixty years. After fleeing Berlin with his family in 1933, he eventually made his way to New York City and was working as a copy boy for Agence France-Press when he was given a chance assignment to photograph the final voyage of the SS Normandie. Then in his mid-twenties, he devoted himself to photojournalism, achieving early fame for his haunting dockside photos of displaced persons. In 1949, another fateful assignment to photograph music and dance at Jacob’s Pillow and Tanglewood led to a life-long affiliation with the Berkshires, where he established his own gallery in the mid-1960s. Along the way, he photographed Merce Cunningham, Pilobolus, and a host of other luminaries. Kalischer’s photographs were included in Edward Steichen’s “The Family of Man” exhibit at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 1955 and in the celebrated book by the same name, and his work was published in The New York Times, Life, Time, and Newsweek. He continued working in his Stockbridge gallery until shortly before his death in June 2018 at age 97.
Source of Biography
written by Norton Owen for Jacob's Pillow Remembers.
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