The photographer associates survivors from the holocaust with celebrities in portraits

Photographer Bryce Thompson paired the Holocaust survivors with celebrities in intimate portraits.
The “Borrowed Spotlight” project aims to take advantage of the fame of celebrities to amplify the stories of survivors.
Participants in celebrities included Cindy Crawford, Barbara Corcoran, Sheryl Sandberg and Billy Porter.

Bryce Thompson fashion photographer has worked with models and has shot numerous covers of magazines and advertising campaigns. For his last series of photos, he formed his camera on a different subject: the aging survivors of the holocaust.

The “Spotlight borrowed” project associates celebrities and business leaders with Jewish survivors of the Holocaust, capturing sincere moments of connection and amplifying their testimonies to combat anti -Semitism and all forms of hatred.

The famous participants who lent their public platforms to the project include the star of “Shark Tank” and the real estate magnate Barbara Corcoran, the former meta-coo Sheryl Sandberg, the model Cindy Crawford and the actors Jennifer Garner, Billy Porter and David Schwimmer.

The photos are exhibited for a period limited to Détour Gallery in New York, but are also available as a coffee table book. The product of the book and printed sales benefit the education and resources of the holocaust for the survivors.

Take a look at the photos of “borrowed spotlight”.

Fashion photographer Bryan Thompson took intimate portraits of celebrities meeting the Holocaust survivors for a project entitled “Borrowed Spotlight”.

Photographer Bryce Thompson.

Bryce Thompson

Thompson did not present celebrities and survivors before the photo shoot so that he can photograph their first moments to meet.

“This initiative paired celebrities and notable individuals from various industries with survivors not only to disseminate the message but to engage directly-listen, question and share these deep experiences,” he wrote in the introduction of the Book of the Coffee Table.

The project aims to take advantage of the fame of celebrities to amplify the stories of aging survivors of the holocaust.

The actor of “Pretty Little Liars” Ashley Benson with Joseph Samuels.

Bryce Thompson

About 220,850 Jewish survivors of the Holocaust are still alive today, and most are over 85 years old, according to the global demographic report of 2025 on the Jewish survivors of the Holocaust published by the Conference of Complaints.

Photos of “borrowed spotlight” will be exhibited at the Detour Gallery in New York until April 27.

CNN Anchor Wolf Blitzer with Josie Traum.

Bryce Thompson

A full list of exhibition hours can be found on the official spotlight site borrowed.

The “borrowed spotlight” coffee table book costs $ 360, the benefits ranging to the holocaust education programs.

David Schwimmer with Elizabeth Wilf.

Bryce Thompson

The benefits of a private auction of the series prints will also be donated to the American Holocaust Memorial Museum and Self-Help, an organization that provides informed care of trauma to the Holocaust survivors in New York.

Cindy Crawford wrote the preface to the photo book and posed with Ella Mandel, 98 years old.

Cindy Crawford with Ella Mandel.

Bryce Thompson

Crawford wrote that Meeting Mandel, who was 13 years old when German forces invaded Poland in 1939, was “deeply inspiring”.

“She shared the heartbreaking losses she endured: her sister, her father, her mother and another sister – everything left. She was the only survivor of her family,” Crawford wrote. “She told me how, at her lowest point, her friend’s brother said to her:” No more death. We are getting married. “They did it and they built a life together in the United States.”

Thompson photographed tears flowing on the face of Kat Graham while listening to the story of Yetta Kane.

Kat Graham with Yetta Kane.

Bryce Thompson

Kane’s blond hair and blue eyes, which the Nazis considered features of a higher breed, allowed him to work as a mail for Jewish resistance groups known as partisans at the age of 8.

“We are here to tell the story,” Kane told Graham, an actor better known for his role in “The Vampire Diaries”. “This is what is important.”

The Braun scooter sat on a conversation with Joseph Alexander, 103, whose tattoo in the number of a concentration camp was visible on his arm.

Braun scooter with Joseph Alexander.

Bryce Thompson

Born in 1922, Alexander endured the Warsaw ghetto and 12 concentration camps, including Auschwitz and Dachau, before being released in 1945. He was the only surviving member of his family of his parents and five brothers and sisters.

Alexander visited Dachau in 2023 to mark the 78th anniversary of the camp release.

“I want to be in this form at 103,” said Braun, sitting with Alexander.

The old Meta Co Sheryl Sandberg shared a tender moment with George Elbaum.

Sheryl Sandberg with George Elbaum.

Bryce Thompson

Elbaum’s mother helped him escape Nazi persecution by paying Catholic families to take her and hide her Jewish identity.

“It’s an incredible thing to go through what you have experienced, or to see life and be able to be optimistic,” Sandberg told Elbaum.

“This is the only way I have survived,” he said.

Tova Friedman told Barbara Corcoran that she had survived in Auschwitz at the age of 6 because a gas chamber worked badly.

Barbara Corcoran with Tova Friedman. — Barbara Corcoran, a real estate entrepreneur, with Tova Friedman.

Bryce Thompson

“We, the survivors, have the obligation not only to remember those who were slaughtered so ruthlessly, but also to warn and teach that hatred generates hatred and murder,” said Friedman.

Thompson photographed Billy Porter with Bella Rosenberg, who was one of the 140 Jews to survive from his 20,000 Polish hometown.

Billy wear with Bella Rosenberg.

Bryce Thompson

Porter, a Broadway star, wrote on Instagram that the story of Rosenberg “is a powerful reminder of what can happen when hatred is not controlled and why we must remain vigilant to protect the most vulnerable in our society”.

“If you don’t tell your story, people won’t know,” Gabriella Karin, 95, told Jennifer Garner.

Jennifer Garner with Gabriella Karin.

Bryce Thompson

A 25-year-old lawyer hid Karin and his family for nine months in his apartment in a room in front of a Nazi outpost.

Thompson hopes that the series of photos helps fight against modern anti -Semitism and all forms of prejudice and hatred.

Jenna Dewan with Risa Igelfeld. — Jenna Dewan, a dancer and actress, with Risa Igelfeld.

Bryce Thompson

“These survivors represent living will, urging us to never forget that empathy and action are often the difference between life and forgetfulness,” wrote Thompson.

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