Anni Bergman

In 2013 when I began photographing Anni she was ninety-four years old. As her former student and mentee I wanted to understand this extraordinary woman’s insatiable zest for life despite the accumulating losses accompanying her aging. By documenting Anni’s daily life I learned more about Anni, discovering that the qualities I admired most were the qualities that have always defined this remarkable woman. Emigrating to America as a seventeen year old orphan escaping the Holocaust, Anni became a world renowned psychoanalyst. Faced with the choice of accepting either admission to college or an invitation to join the circus as an gymnast, Anni chose an academic career. Acclaimed for her success with children and adults that other clinicians deemed untreatable, Anni never gave up on her patients, just as she has never given up on herself. She maintains her core self: adventurous and courageous, always curious and compassionate. The work is a celebration of Anni and an example of resiliency of self.