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• 1 2020-07-29T09:02:30-07:00 About the Photographer 28 plain 1012803 2021-01-11T06:11:53-08:00

  Vincent Giordano was a photographer and filmmaker dedicated to finding and recording the unique, collective memories of families and communities.

  Mr. Giordano possessed a keen eye for subject and detail and his work was known for its artistic sensibility and technical excellence. Beginning in 1999, he began documenting the places, people and events of New York’s Romaniote Jewish Community, centered at Kehila Kedosha Janina on Broome Street, but also maintaining close ties with their city of origin, Ioannina. Greece. Vincent continued and expanded this work, which he called Before the Flame Goes Out, until his death, at which time he was working on a documentary film about the past and present of the Romaniote community.
  
  Mr. Giordano’s work has been exhibited in many galleries and is included in numerous private collections. Mr. Giordano’s collection of portraits from September 11, 2001, is in the permanent collection of the New-York Historical Society.  He was the recipient of several awards including seven Clio Awards for his film work in television commercials.
  
  In addition to Before the Flame Goes Out, Mr. Giordano created portfolios including, Casino; The Atlantic City Boardwalk; Peggy’s Cove; The Airport People Mover; Central Park; Grand Central Station; Times Square and The Fulton Fish Market.
  
  Vincent Giordano is survived by his wife Hilda and step-daughter Elizabeth, both of whom have helped make this exhibition possible.

  Artist’s Statement

  Vincent Giordano died in 2010. He wrote this statement about this project for a 2007 exhibition of the work:

  Seven years ago, I first visited the Kehila Kedosha Janina Synagogue on Broome Street and what I heard and saw there made an indelible impression upon me. I listened with great interest and sadness to the story of the Romaniote’s forgotten place in Jewish history. I wondered how a community and its culture wither away and vanish…which forces are at work, and which are not? I began to photograph and document the synagogue and the community. This effort was transformed into an incredible personal journey of discovery, filled with wonderful people, interesting experiences, and fascinating places. As I explored and probed deeper, I discovered this story is much larger than the synagogue on Broome Street, that it reaches far into the past…to the rich history of the Jews in ancient Greece and the Byzantine Empire…and the devastation of the Holocaust.

• 1 media/For intro page 69320032.JPG 2020-07-29T07:35:15-07:00 Introduction 26 image_header 2021-01-11T11:14:34-08:00

  In 1999, photographer Vincent Giordano made an unplanned visit to the small Kehila Kedosha Janina (KKJ) synagogue on New York’s Lower East Side.

  Giordano knew little about Judaism or synagogues, and even less about the Romaniote Jewish tradition of which KKJ is the lone North American representative. In this he was not alone. Romaniotes–those Greek Jews who have maintained traditions dating to the days of ancient Greece and Rome are among the least known of Jewish communities. Since the Holocaust, when Romaniote communities in Greece were destroyed, KKJ has struggled to maintain the millennia-old traditions. Giordano was inspired but what he saw in the small synagogue, which following common Orthodox Jewish practice celebrated the Torah and its teachings through beauty within their sanctuary, not outside. Entering the door of KKJ was for Giordano the entrance into an entirely new and different world.
  
  Beginning in 2001 and guided by members of the KKJ community, Giordano documented the synagogue and its religious art of the congregation using film, video, and audio. Imagining that the congregation would soon disappear, he titled his project Before the Flame Goes Out. Sponsored by the International Survey of Jewish Monuments, the project became an extended exploration not just a building, but of a community and individual lives and stories, including portraiture, oral histories, and documentation of important life cycles, religious, and community rituals and events. Importantly, Giordano realized the history of KKJ is intimately linked to its mother city of Ioannina, Greece, and its small Jewish community. The photographs used in this exhibition, including many taken in Ioannina during the High Holidays in 2006, demonstrate the profound links between these communities.
  
  In 2019 the Giordano family donated the archive of Vincent’s work to Queens College, where it is a major part of the Hellenic American Project and is preserved as part of the Benjamin S. Rosenthal Library's Special Collections and Archives. 
  
  This exhibit is curated by Dr. Samuel Gruber, President of the International Survey of Jewish Monuments and designed by Annie Tummino, Queens College Head of Special Collections and Archives. We are thankful for the support of many individuals and organizations who made this exhibit possible.