Shosh Kormosh

Shosh Kormosh (; 20 January 1948 – 19 November 2001) was an Israeli artist known for her hand-processed black-and-white photographs that carried a painting-like sensitivity and delicacy. Her work explored profound themes of bereavement, loss, the memory of The Holocaust, and the pervasive sense of loneliness in an increasingly alienated world.

Life and education Shosh Kormosh was born in 1948 in Regensburg, Germany. Her family were Holocaust survivors from Poland who emigrated to Israel in 1949. Six months later, her husband, Meir Franco, was murdered in the Sinai Peninsula.

Career Kormosh worked as a photojournalist in Tel Aviv for Ha-ir from 1988 until 1992. She specialized in portrait photography, but also explored dance and theater photography. In her original photographs, Kormosh played with and retouched shadows, creating flat compositions. She also created collage works, combining multiple photographs into one piece.

She returned to HaMidrasha in 1992, where she taught photography for a year. She later taught photography at the Shenkar College of Engineering and Design in 1995.

Artistic style and themes Kormosh’s photographs often employed distancing and metonymy, creating visual narratives that addressed personal and collective trauma. Her meticulous photographic techniques blurred the lines between photography and other forms of visual art, such as painting and sculpture. Through this approach, Kormosh created images that transcended simple representation, delving into the deeper emotional and philosophical realms of memory and mourning.

The artist Nurit David described Kormosh's work as a "unique attempt by photography to discuss its absence, its innate problem, its variance from painting and sculpture, and its dependence on an object." Kormosh’s compositions frequently featured quasi-bourgeois objects—detached from their original contexts—floating in stark black or white spaces. These surreal elements created a disjointed visual environment, a "non-world" where objects appeared untethered and out of context. This imagery evoked what David described as a "terrible reversal" of Martin Heidegger’s concept of "being-in-the-world."

Connection to Holocaust memory As a second-generation descendant of Holocaust survivors, Kormosh's work is often interpreted as a quintessential example of trauerarbeit (the work of mourning). Her photography became a medium for processing grief and the intergenerational transmission of trauma, resonating deeply with Israeli artists and audiences grappling with the memory of the Holocaust.

Awards and prizes 1997: Prize for Plastic Arts, Ministry of Education and Culture 1999: Eugene Kolb Prize for Israeli Graphic Arts, Tel Aviv Museum of Art

Selected solo exhibitions 1993: Shosh Kormosh 1991-1993, The Museum of Israeli Art, Ramat Gan 1996: Shosh Kormosh: Works 94-95, Tel Aviv Artists’ Studios, Tel Aviv-Yafo 1998: Shosh Kormosh, Moshe Gershuni, Tel Aviv Artists’ Studios, Tel Aviv-Yafo 2008: Terms of Stillness: Works 1987-2001, The Open Museum of Photography, Tel-Hai 2009: Terms of Stillness: Works 1987-2001, Omer Open Museum, Omer 2012: Shosh Kormosh: Works 1987-2001, Gordon Gallery, Tel Aviv

Group exhibitions (selection in the Field of printmaking) 1999: Exhibition 25: New Prints, Jerusalem Print Workshop, Jerusalem 2008: Flora in the Workshop, Jerusalem Print Workshop, Jerusalem 2012: Aspects of Black, Jerusalem Print Workshop, Jerusalem