Frédéric Brenner

Frédéric Brenner (born 1959) is a French photographer known for his documentation of Jewish communities around the world. His work has been exhibited at the International Center of Photography in New York, the Musée de l'Élysée in Lausanne, Rencontres d'Arles in Arles, the Brooklyn Museum in New York, and the Joods Historisch Museum in Amsterdam.

In 1996, Brenner created an installation on Ellis Island, in New York, featuring several prominent Jewish Americans, including Lauren Bacall, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Mark Spitz and Mayor Ed Koch among others. The installation, and events leading up to it, was filmed by the documentary director Kevin Weyl.

Early life and education Brenner was born in Paris and grew up in France. In 1981, Brenner received a B.A. in French Literature and Social Anthropology from the Paris-Sorbonne University. He went on to study at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales and received a M.A. in Social Anthropology, also awarded by the Sorbonne.

Career At age 19, Brenner began photographing Orthodox Jews in the Mea Shearim neighborhood of Jerusalem. Initially, he believed this was "authentic Judaism," but his approach quickly evolved into an exploration of the multiplicities of dissonant identities. Brenner has published five books and directed three films. His work has been shown in museums and galleries around the world. He has been represented by Howard Greenberg Gallery in New York since 1990. NPR's Robert Siegel has described Brenner's work as "a celebration of the diversity and complexity of diaspora."

In 2006, Brenner founded This Place, a collective photography project aimed at recontextualizing Israel from multiple perspectives. The photographers working on this project include Wendy Ewald, Martin Kollar, Josef Koudelka, Jungjin Lee, Gilles Peress, Fazal Sheikh, Stephen Shore, Rosalind Solomon, Thomas Struth, Jeff Wall, and Nick Waplington. This Place will be exhibited internationally, beginning at the DOX Centre for Contemporary Art in Prague in the fall of 2014.

Publications Jerusalem, Instants d'Eternité. Paris: Éditions Denoël, 1984. Israel. New York: HarperCollins; London: Collins Harville, 1988. With texts by A. B. Yehoshua Marranes. Paris: Editions de la Différence, 1992. With an essay by Y.H. Yerushalmi. Jews/America/A Representation. New York: Abrams Books, 1996. With an essay by Simon Schama. Exile at Home. New York: Abrams Books, 1998. With a poem by Yehuda Amichai. Diaspora: Homelands in Exile. New York: HarperCollins, 2003. An Archeology of Fear and Desire. London: Mack, 2014.

Filmography 1991, Les derniers Marranes (The Last Marranos), with Stan Neumann, produced by Les Films d’Ici, distributed by Europe Images International. 2003, Tykocin, with Jérôme de Missolz, ZKO Films. 1992 International Center of Photography, New York 1990 Rencontres d'Arles, Arles 1993 Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York 2003 Brooklyn Museum, New York 2004 United Nations, New York 2022 Joods Museum, Amsterdam