Maurice Berger and Marvin Heiferman in 1997. Portrait by Mitch Epstein

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

Ian Witlen - Exhibition Model Photos-2805_BW (LOW RES).jpg

The Parkland shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in February 2018 – the deadliest in United States History – aroused new concerns about the gravity of gun violence in America. Ian Witlen, a photojournalist called to cover its aftermath for local news outlets, felt an additional sense of trauma when he arrived at the scene because Stoneman Douglas was the same high school he attended years ago. Places he held dear and associated with his own memories and adolescence were now tainted with death, and he was expected to photograph it.

Assignment after assignment added new layers of pain and introspection. As the days and weeks progressed, Witlen began questioning how local media was shaping the story, who was being interviewed, and how their stories were being told. Shortly after, he embarked on an oral histories project, photographing and interviewing survivors, asking them two simple questions: "What was your experience that day?" and "What would you like to see come of it." Much like the Shoah Project and other oral histories series, Witlen’s lens, ear, and microphone help these stories and those whose lives were lost live on and gives viewers deeper insight into an unimaginable event.

In advance of his solo exhibition at the Coral Springs Museum of Art, I spoke with Witlen to learn more about his experience and response to this horrific event.

Jon Feinstein in conversation with Ian Witlen

Marvin Heiferman on Photography, Love, and the Loss of Maurice Berger

Ian Witlen's Multimedia Museum Exhibition Captures Oral Testimonies of Survivors of the Parkland School Shooting