The New York school of photography is identified by Jane LivingstonA potted CV of Livingston may be found in

, the Getty Research Institute, 2011. as "a loosely defined group of photographers who lived and worked in New York City during the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s" and who, although disinclined to commit themselves to any group or belief, "shared a number of influences, aesthetic assumptions, subjects, and stylistic earmarks".Jane Livingston, ''The New York School: Photographs 1936–1963'' (New York: Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 1992; ). Livingston writes that their work was marked by humanism, a tough-minded style, photojournalistic techniques, the influence of ''

film noir Film noir (; ) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American ' ...

'' and the photographers

Lewis Hine Lewis Wickes Hine (September 26, 1874 – November 3, 1940) was an American sociologist and muckraker photographer. His photographs were instrumental in bringing about the passage of the first child labor laws in the United States. Early life ...

Walker Evans Walker Evans (November 3, 1903 – April 10, 1975) was an American photographer and photojournalist best known for his work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) documenting the effects of the Great Depression. Much of Evans' work from ...

, and

Henri Cartier-Bresson Henri Cartier-Bresson (; 22 August 1908 – 3 August 2004) was a French humanist photographer considered a master of candid photography, and an early user of 35mm film. He pioneered the genre of street photography, and viewed photography as cap ...

; and that it avoided "the anecdotal descriptiveness of most photojournalism" and the egoism of American

action painting Action painting, sometimes called "gestural abstraction", is a style of painting in which paint is spontaneously dribbled, splashed or smeared onto the canvas, rather than being carefully applied. The resulting work often emphasizes the physical a ...

, and indeed that it was remarkably little influenced by contemporary painting or graphic design (even though a number of its exponents had direct experience of these). Livingston selects as key exponents of the New York school of photography

Diane Arbus Diane Arbus (; née Nemerov; March 14, 1923 – July 26, 1971
" The New York ...

Richard Avedon Richard Avedon (May 15, 1923 – October 1, 2004) was an American fashion and portrait photographer. He worked for ''Harper's Bazaar'', ''Vogue'' and ''Elle'' specializing in capturing movement in still pictures of fashion, theater and danc ...

Alexey Brodovitch Alexey Vyacheslavovich Brodovitch (also Brodovich; be, Аляксей Брадовіч, russian: Алексе́й Вячесла́вович Бродо́вич; 1898 – April 15, 1971) was a Russian-born American photographer, designer ...

, Ted Croner, Bruce Davidson,

Don Donaghy Don Donaghy (born Leonard Donald Donaghy in Pennsylvania; 2 November 1936 – 23 July 2008) was a member of the New York school of photography. Donaghy studied at the Philadelphia Museum School of Art after which he pursued street photography in Ph ...

Louis Faurer Louis Faurer (August 28, 1916 – March 2, 2001) was an American candid or street photographer. He was a quiet artist who never achieved the broad public recognition that his best-known contemporaries did; however, the significance and caliber of ...

Robert Frank Robert Frank (November 9, 1924 – September 9, 2019) was a Swiss photographer and documentary filmmaker, who became an American binational. His most notable work, the 1958 book titled ''The Americans'', earned Frank comparisons to a modern-da ...

Sid Grossman Sid Grossman (June 25, 1913 in Manhattan – December 31, 1955 in Provincetown) was an American photographer, teacher, and social activist. Life Sid Grossman was the younger son of Morris and Ethel Grossman. He attended the City College of ...

, William Klein,

Saul Leiter Saul Leiter (December 3, 1923 – November 26, 2013) was an American photographer and painter whose early work in the 1940s and 1950s was an important contribution to what came to be recognized as the New York school of photography.Jane Livin ...

Leon Levinstein Leon Levinstein (1910–1988) was an American street photographer best known for his work documenting everyday street life in New York City from the 1950s through the 1980s. In 1975 Levinstein was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship from the John Si ...

Helen Levitt Helen Levitt (August 31, 1913 – March 29, 2009) was an American photographer and cinematographer. She was particularly noted for her street photography around New York City. David Levi Strauss described her as "the most celebrated and least ...

Lisette Model Lisette Model (born Elise Amelie Felicie Stern; November 10, 1901 – March 30, 1983) was an Austrian-born American photographer primarily known for the frank humanism of her street photography. A prolific photographer in the 1940s and a member ...

, David Vestal, and

Weegee Arthur (Usher) Fellig (June 12, 1899 – December 26, 1968), known by his pseudonym Weegee, was a photography, photographer and photojournalism, photojournalist, known for his stark black and white street photography in New York City. Weegee w ...

. Other photographers said to be associated with the New York school are Ian Conner,As selected for an exhibition, ''The New York School of Photography: 1930s–1960s'',

Jan Kesner Gallery The Jan Kesner Gallery is a fine art photography gallery in Los Angeles, California. It was the first woman-owned photography gallery in Los Angeles when it was established in 1987. The gallery is known primarily for its focus on contemporary an ...

, Los Angeles, January 9 – February 28, 1998.
January 09 to February 28, 1998: The New York School of Photography: 1930s–1960s: Group Exhibition
, Jan Kesner Gallery.

Morris Engel Morris Engel (April 8, 1918 – March 5, 2005) was an American photographer, cinematographer and filmmaker best known for making the first good-quality, internationally-recognized American film "independent" of Hollywood studios, ''Little Fugit ...

, Harold Feinstein,

Ernst Haas Ernst Haas (March 2, 1921 – September 12, 1986) was an Austrian-American photojournalist and color photographer. During his 40-year career, Haas bridged the gap between photojournalism and the use of photography as a medium for expression an ...

Arthur Leipzig Arthur Leipzig (October 25, 1918 – December 5, 2014) was an American photographer who specialized in street photography and was known for his photographs of New York City. Career Leipzig was born in Brooklyn. After sustaining a serious injury to ...

Ruth Orkin Ruth (or its variants) may refer to: Places France * Château de Ruthie, castle in the commune of Aussurucq in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques département of France Switzerland * Ruth, a hamlet in Cologny United States * Ruth, Alabama * Ruth, Ar ...

Walter Rosenblum Walter A. Rosenblum (1919–2006) was an American photographer. He photographed the World War II D-Day landing at Normandy in 1944. He was the first Allied photographer to enter the liberated Dachau concentration camp. He received several militar ...

Louis Stettner Louis Stettner (November 7, 1922 – October 13, 2016) was an American photographer of the 20th century whose work included streetscapes, portraits and architectural images of New York and Paris. His work has been highly regarded because of its hum ...

Garry Winogrand Garry Winogrand (January 14, 1928 – March 19, 1984) was an American street photographer, known for his portrayal of U.S. life and its social issues, in the mid-20th century. Photography curator, historian, and critic John Szarkowski called Wino ...

and

Max Yavno Max Yavno (1911–1985) was a photographer who specialized in street scenes, especially in Los Angeles and San Francisco, California. Personal life The son of Russian immigrants, Louis and "Lizzie" (Rudnick) Yavno, Max was born in New York City ...

. Livingston argues that the factors giving rise to a New York school included a belief that the arts, and particularly photography, could be used to improve conditions of the working classes, 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 ...

, the local presence of editorial offices of a wide variety of picture magazines, exhibition spaces (some of which sometimes showed photographic prints), a background of movie watching, immigration from or a sojourn in Europe. The notion of a New York school of photography is not universally accepted. Despite the inclusion of a number of the photographers Livingston selected in the

Jewish Museum A Jewish museum is a museum which focuses upon Jews and may refer seek to explore and share the Jewish experience in a given area. List of Jewish museums Notable Jewish museums include: *Albania ** Solomon Museum, Berat *Australia ** Jewish Mu ...

's 2002 exhibition ''New York: Capital of Photography'',

Max Kozloff Max Kozloff (born 1933) is an American art historian, art critic of modern art and photographer. He has been art editor at ''The Nation'', and Executive Editor of ''Artforum''. His essay "American Painting During the Cold War" is of particular im ...

discusses the exhibition in Daniel Belasco,
Lens of the City
, ''The Jewish Week'', May 3, 2002.

appears to avoid the term in his detailed text for the bookMax Kozloff, ''New York: Capital of Photography'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002; ard

aper Aper may refer to: People * Aper (grammarian), 1st century Greek grammarian * Marcus Aper, 1st century Roman orator * Trosius Aper, 2nd century Roman grammarian and Latin tutor to Marcus Aurelius * Gaius Septimius Severus Aper (ca. 175–211/2 ...

. that accompanied the exhibition. As for those who use the term, Evan Sklar says that "Critics and curators still debate exactly who and what constituted what is often referred to as the New York School of Photography, which is associated with serious-minded images produced in the decades after World War II by a small band of photographers whose subject was nominally the city itself."Evan Sklar,
With Feinstein Retrospective, a Bygone Era
, ''New York Times'', 10 October 2011.{{cite news, title=Photography Schools, url=http://www.topteny.com/top-10-best-most-famous-photography-schools/, accessdate=10 August 2016, work=topteny

Notes

References

Photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed ...

Street photographers Photography in the United States