Laguna Beach

Laguna Beach, CA, April 2011 © Marissa Roth

I love this image of the undertow and gently breaking waves. It represents for me beauty and danger, light and darkness, death and re-birth... and the ever-present duality of all that exists, punctuated by a thousand shades of gray.

From The Archive: Hungary's Post-Communist Elections

In the spring of 1991, I spent 6 weeks in Budapest for the run-up to, and the day of, voting in the first post-Communist elections held in Hungary. This dismantled red star, which stood atop Hero's Hill on the Buda side for decades, was the last one that was left after the fall of communism.

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, Museum of Tolerance, May 2011 © Marissa Roth

Tom Cruise is a major donor to the Museum of Tolerance, and was honored at the Simon Wiesenthal Center's 20th annual tribute dinner on May 5th, 2011, at the Beverly Wilshire. Cruise was joined by a few other Hollywood greats including Jeffrey "I'm proud to be a part of the 'Jews love Cruise' fan club" Katzenberg.

Kathleen Clark Interview

 Monk carrying a chair and a kitten, 2010 © Marissa Roth

Kathleen Clarke is a photo editor, director and photography consultant, who also has a gallery in LA. She and Marissa have worked together over the years, and Kathleen just posted a lovely interview with Marissa, with topics including how she became interested in photography in the first place.

"Bruce Davidson’s 'Subway' book was a revelation to me, as was Mary Ellen Mark’s 'Ward 81'. I also loved the work of Jacques Henri Lartigue, André Kertesz and Richard Avedon, among others."

With a variety of Marissa's images illustrating the article, it's a lovely piece. Thanks Kathleen!

Museum Of Tolerance

*Update: The New York Times ran a slideshow of images of the Museum featuring this photograph of Marissa's permanent installation taken by friend and colleague Monica Almeida.

In 2005, Liebe Geft and Elana Samuels approached Marissa about creating a portrait series of the Holocaust survivors associated with The Museum of Tolerance. Many of the survivors speak to school children in weekly 'living history' presentations, recounting over and over again their experiences during the Holocaust. Others volunteer their time tirelessly working in the Center.

"Over the months which turned into years that the portrait sessions spanned, and during the countless hours passed in interviews, hearing the stories had an unexpected personal impact for me, as well. My parents were Holocaust refugees from Hungary and Yugoslavia, arriving in America November of 1938, and many family members, including my paternal grandparents who were killed in a massacre in 1942, perished in The Holocaust. I had always imagined my lost family, and the photographs of them that were never taken or preserved. Meeting and photographing the survivors during this project felt like I had found my family, as stories, names and locales were very familiar. In a way, this project gave me my past. For this I am very grateful, and equally grateful to everyone at the Museum of Tolerance and Simon Wiesenthal Center for this amazing opportunity."

Marissa's friend, photographer Ted Soqui, took this video of her permanent exhibition: 'Witness to Truth' is seventy 16" x 20" portraits made between 2005 and 2010.

The exhibition was formally re-dedicated on May 2nd in honor of Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Memorial Day, as it was re-installed last summer in its permanent location in the spiral 'heart' of the museum. Many of the survivors attended.

 Marissa speaking at the MOT, May 2, 2011 © Adrienne Helitzer