Striking images of Budapest Ghetto survivor John Hajdu and the teddy bear he kept through the Nazi occupation are part of a series by photographer, publisher and film director Rankin for the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust.

Rankin — whose subjects have ranged from Madonna to the Queen — is supporting the trust’s [Extra]Ordinary Portraits competition in advance of Holocaust Memorial Day in January.
Mr Hajdu also lived through the Hungarian Revolution before making his home in Britain.

Rankin said he had been “an absolute pleasure to shoot. He came to the set with a harrowing story but it was broached with humility and even humour at times. I think that authenticity is what makes his portrait so striking.”

The teddy bear became an additional image subject. “I always say if you can take a photograph that initially makes you feel something, and then think something, it will be successful,” Rankin explained.

“And John’s bear allowed me to create an image that does just that. A teddy is something we associate with youth and innocence [and] seeing John hold his bear made it really hit home that he was just a child when he was facing the Holocaust in Hungary.

“John’s bear is also a tangible reminder that the stories we are telling happened in recent history and that we must learn from these events for a better future.”

He has also photographed three other genocide survivors for the HMDT — Amouna Adam, who escaped from Darfur in 2009; Sokphal Din, whose life was turned upside down when the Khmer Rouge came to power in Cambodia in 1975; and Antoinette Mutabazi, who was 11 when surviving the 1994 genocide against the Tutsis in Rwanda.

“To meet survivors and to be entrusted with capturing their stories is more than just a project — it’s a privilege,” Rankin added.

“I learn so much from every survivor’s story. Their ability to take what has happened to them and turn it into something positive is nothing less than inspirational.”

The competition is being run in partnership with the Royal Drawing School and is open to young artists across the UK. Entrants are asked to learn about someone affected by the Holocaust, genocide or identity-based persecution and create a portrait of them revealing the “extraordinary elements of seemingly ordinary people”. The work can be a photograph, drawing, painting, collage or sculpture.

Rankin will be among the judges who will select 30 works to be showcased at the UK’s commemorative ceremony on Holocaust Memorial Day.

HMDT chief executive Olivia Marks-Woldman is delighted by Rankin’s involvement. “The pictures he has taken are hugely powerful statements that shed light on their subjects’ histories and characters,” she said.

“This year’s theme for Holocaust Memorial Day is Ordinary People. The people featured here were ordinary but these pictures show how extraordinary their lives really are.”

hmd.org.uk/competition