Chim’s Children of Europe (1949)
September 10–December 13, 2025
Returning January 14–April 4, 2026
Curator: Gaëlle Morel
In the aftermath of World War II, famed photojournalist (and co-founder of the Magnum Photos picture agency) David “Chim” Seymour was commissioned by UNESCO to document the living conditions of children across a devastated Europe. The resulting images formed Children of Europe, a landmark 1949 publication that raised international awareness of postwar displacement and humanitarian need.
This exhibition brings together original prints and rare archival material from The Image Centre’s collection, revealing Chim’s compassionate lens and commitment to social documentation. Capturing both hardship and resilience, this much-celebrated series reveals the lives of children in Austria, Greece, Germany, Hungary, Italy, and Poland—offering a powerful testament to survival and recovery in a time of profound global upheaval.
David "Chim" Seymour, [Terezka drawing"home" on blackboard, Poland], 1948, gelatin silver print. The Image Centre, Gift of Ben Shneiderman, 2022. © David Seymour Estate/Magnum Photos
David "Chim" Seymour, [Albergo dei Poveri orphanage, Naples, Italy], 1948, gelatin silver print. The Image Centre, Gift of Ben Shneiderman, 2022. © David Seymour Estate/Magnum Photos
Curator Bio
Gaëlle Morel
Gaëlle Morel has been the Exhibitions Curator at The Image Centre since 2010, during which time she has curated dozens of exhibitions and written and edited numerous publications. Her latest projects include Stories from the Picture Press: Black Star Publishing Co. & The Canadian Press; Mary Ellen Mark: Ward 81; and Lee Miller, a Photographer at Work (1932-1945). In 2009, Morel was the guest curator of the photography biennial, Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal. She is currently an instructor in the Film + Photography Preservation and Collections Management graduate program at Toronto Metropolitan University. Morel holds a PhD in the History of Contemporary Photography from Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.
Exhibition Catalogue
Tereska and Her Photographer: A Story by Carole Naggar with Photographs by David "Chim" Seymour
Tereska and Her Photographer is a photobook that presents a fictional story by Carole Naggar about the extraordinary parallel lives of Magnum photographer and co-founder David “Chim” Seymour and Tereska Adwentowska, a young Polish girl who was the subject of Chim’s most famous photograph. Based on historical facts, Tereska and her Photographer is a fiction built as a small opera, where all the characters in Chim and Tereska’s lives bring their various voices to the narrative. The book’s chronology is nonlinear, weaving vignettes from 1948 and the present with those from Chim’s youth and Tereska’s early childhood. David “Chim” Seymour’s photographs, along with several anonymous historical images, are inventively presented and arranged by award-winning book designer Ricardo Báez with striking typography by Juan Mercerón.
