Arnold Eagle (1909 - October 25, 1992) was a Hungarian-American photographer and cinematographer, known for his socially concerned documentary photographs of the 1930s and 1940s.

Life

Archives of American Art - Helen Gaulois - 3053

Archives of American Art - Eric Mose - 2869

Eagle emigrated from Hungary to Brooklyn with his family in 1929. He joined the

Workers Film and Photo League The Workers Film and Photo League was an organization of filmmakers, photographers, writers and projectionists in the 1930s, dedicated to using film and photography for social change. History Founded in 1930, the WFPL produced documentaries of ...

in 1932 to use his art to promote radical social change. In 1935, the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

hired him to photograph New York slums, the Second Avenue El district and the

Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Traditionally an im ...

. In 1936, he joined the

Photo League The Photo League was a cooperative of photographers in New York who banded together around a range of common social and creative causes. Founded in 1936, the League included some of the most noted American photographers of the mid-20th century amon ...

as one of the earliest members and later formed the War Production Group within the Photo League in 1942. Eagle freelanced for ''

Fortune Fortune may refer to: General * Fortuna or Fortune, the Roman goddess of luck * Luck * Wealth * Fortune, a prediction made in fortune-telling * Fortune, in a fortune cookie Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''The Fortune'' (1931 film) ...

'', ''The Saturday Evening Post'', and other magazines. Through the

Federal Art Project The Federal Art Project (1935–1943) was a New Deal program to fund the visual arts in the United States. Under national director Holger Cahill, it was one of five Federal Project Number One projects sponsored by the Works Progress Administrati ...

in 1938, he photographed the Jewish community on the Lower East Side. These photographs were published in the 1992 book ''At Home Only With God: Believing Jews and Their Children'', with an essay by

Arthur Hertzberg Arthur Hertzberg (June 9, 1921 – April 17, 2006) was a Conservative rabbi and prominent Jewish-American scholar and activist. Biography Avraham Hertzberg was born in Lubaczów, Poland, the eldest of five children, and left Europe in 1926 with ...

photographers Eagle,

Sol Libsohn Sol Libsohn (February 5, 1914 - January 21, 2001) was a self-taught, documentary photographer. Biography After graduating from City College of New York, he joined the Film and Photo League where he earned his living documenting paintings. In 193 ...

and David Robbins exhibited a series of photographs of slum districts in New York at the Federal Art Gallery in New York in 1938. The series was inspired by

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

's "one-third of a nation" (the ill-clothed, ill-housed and ill-nourished) strategy. Eagle was the director of the photography workshop of the

National Youth Administration The National Youth Administration (NYA) was a New Deal agency sponsored by Franklin D. Roosevelt during his presidency. It focused on providing work and education for Americans between the ages of 16 and 25. It operated from June 26, 1935 to ...

with his assistant,

Harold Corsini Harold Corsini (August 28, 1919 – January 1, 2008) was an American photographer. Harold Corsini was born to Italian immigrants in New York City and began his career there as a freelancer. A photo he took when he was about 16, an aerial shot of ...

, from 1939 to 1942. He worked with

Roy Stryker Roy Emerson Stryker (November 5, 1893 – September 27, 1975) was an American economist, government official, and photographer. He headed the Information Division of the Farm Security Administration (FSA) during the Great Depression, and launc ...

on the

Standard Oil Standard Oil Company, Inc., was an American oil production, transportation, refining, and marketing company that operated from 1870 to 1911. At its height, Standard Oil was the largest petroleum company in the world, and its success made its co-f ...

Project from 1943 to 1947. He was the still photographer for the 1948 film ''

Louisiana Story ''Louisiana Story'' is a 1948 American black-and-white drama film directed by Robert J. Flaherty. Although it has historically been represented as a documentary film, the events and characters depicted are fictional and the film was commissioned ...

'' by

Robert J. Flaherty Robert Joseph Flaherty, (; February 16, 1884 – July 23, 1951) was an American filmmaker who directed and produced the first commercially successful feature-length documentary film, ''Nanook of the North'' (1922). The film made his reputatio ...

and the cinematographer for the 1947 film ''

Dreams That Money Can Buy ''Dreams That Money Can Buy'' is a 1947 experimental feature color film written, produced, and directed by surrealist artist and dada film-theorist Hans Richter. The film was produced by Kenneth Macpherson and Peggy Guggenheim. Collaborators in ...

'' by Hans Richter, as well as several of his own documentary films. Eagle was a professor of photography at the

New School for Social Research The New School for Social Research (NSSR) is a graduate-level educational institution that is one of the divisions of The New School in New York City, United States. The university was founded in 1919 as a home for progressive era thinkers. NSSR ...

from 1955 until shortly before his death. He was interred at Mount Judah Cemetery in Queens, New York.

Recent exhibitions (selection)

*November 4, 2011 – March 25, 201
"The Radical Camera: New York's Photo League, 1936-1951"
at

The Jewish Museum The Jewish Museum is an art museum and repository of cultural artifacts, housed at 1109 Fifth Avenue, in the former Felix M. Warburg House, along Museum Mile on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York City. The first Jewish museum in the Unit ...

References

External links

Interviews With ASMP Founders: Arnold Eagle

American Society of Media Photographers The American Society of Media Photographers, abbreviated ASMP, is a professional association of imaging professionals, including photojournalists, architectural, underwater, food/culinary and advertising photographers as well as video/film makers ...

One Third of a Nation, by Arnold Eagle and David RobbinsArnold Eagle dance photograph collection, 1934-1965
- Jerome Robbins Dance Division,

New York Public Library for the Performing Arts The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, at 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, is located in Manhattan, New York City, at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on the Upper West Side, between the Metro ...

* Arnold Eagle papers and films related to Hans Richter, 1927-1990.

Getty Research Institute The Getty Research Institute (GRI), located at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, California, is "dedicated to furthering knowledge and advancing understanding of the visual arts".

, Los Angeles. Accession No. 970021. This collection documents the film collaborations and friendship of German-born Dadaist, Hans Richter, and New York photographer and cinematographer, Arnold Eagle. It includes color film footage, out-takes and audiotracks for several of Richter's post-World War II films, as well as letters, notes, scripts, sketches, photographs, printed material and storyboards. {{DEFAULTSORT:Eagle, Arnold 1909 births 1992 deaths 20th-century American photographers People of the New Deal arts projects Works Progress Administration workers Hungarian emigrants to the United States