FRAMES Photography Podcast with Max Hirshfeld

On today’s episode of the FRAMES Photography Podcast W. Scott Olsen is talking to Max Hirshfeld, American photographer who grew up in a house full of books and music to parents who survived Auschwitz and settled in small-town Alabama, and co-founder of the Images for Humanity project.

You can listen to this interview using our podcast player below, but we strongly encourage you to subscribe to the podcast in your podcast app, so that you don’t miss any future episodes of the show.

Max Hirshfeld grew up in a house full of books and music to parents who survived Auschwitz and settled in small-town Alabama. His father, a child prodigy who played piano with The Warsaw Philharmonic at the age of nine, pushed him to explore the arts with a curiosity born from generations of intellectual and artistic pursuits. After five years as a staff photographer with The Smithsonian and a career-altering week at The University of Missouri photojournalism workshop, he opened a studio in Washington shooting for advertising, design and editorial clients.

In 1993, he escorted my mother on her first return to Poland in forty-six years and photographed her attempt at closure. This rare gift gave him a fresh appreciation for the power of photography and added a new dimension to his work: respect for the great traditions of documentary photography wedded to a love of humanity. Years of practice in the analog world is now meshed with a loving embrace of digital technologies and keeps Max thrilled to be still shooting.

Max Hirshfeld is also a co-founder of Images for Humanity project.

Co-founded by Max and Andy Anderson, Images for Humanity, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to helping people afflicted by crises around the world.

Committed to transparency, diversity, and a belief in the power of creative excellence in photography, they partner with some of the world’s most acclaimed photographers and photography curators to raise money for charities and NGOs through print sales, auctions, book publishing, and fund raisers.