Approaching the one-year anniversary of Maurice Berger’s COVID-related death, his husband, photography curator and critic Marvin Heiferman speaks about their shared passion for photography, social justice, the ubiquity of image-culture, and life itself.

Early in the COVID pandemic, the photo community lost one of its brightest lights. In late March 2020, writer, curator, and staunch social justice advocate Maurice Berger died at his home in Craryville, New York.

Berger’s 1990 Art in America essay “Are Art Museums Racist?” helped contextualize contemporaneous conversations about race and representation across the art world, but specifically in institutions that predictably fail to acknowledge and correct racist practices and procedures. From 2013 through 2019, Berger’s award-winning column, Race Stories, for the New York Times Lens Blog championed the photographic works, books, and projects of people of color.

Berger’s premature death opened a gaping hole in the lives of those who knew or admired him, but none wider than his husband Marvin Heiferman.

An equally revered writer and cultural commentator, Heiferman started sharing candid visual reflections on Instagram via @whywelook shortly after Berger’s death. Photos of life with Maurice, and without him, convey harrowing loss as adequately as images can. Their wedding rings stamped with “Love Mo, Love Marvin.”
A photo of Maurice’s favorite plaid vest captioned “An easy picture to make, but so sad for me to look at…” Marvin’s first view into the couple’s New York City apartment after Maurice died. These pictures frame social media and photography as spaces for processing grief and engaging community.

Marvin Heiferman graciously agreed to speak with me about his loss, and how he is coping nearly a year on.

Roula Seikaly in conversation with Marvin Heiferman