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 among its members. It ceased operations in 1951 following its placement in 1947 on the U.S. Department of Justice

blacklist Blacklisting is the action of a group or authority compiling a blacklist (or black list) of people, countries or other entities to be avoided or distrusted as being deemed unacceptable to those making the list. If someone is on a blacklist, t ...

with accusations that it was a communist, anti-American organization.

Origins

The League's origins traced back to a project of the

Workers International Relief The Workers International Relief (WIR) — also known as Internationale Arbeiter-Hilfe (IAH) in German and as Международная рабочая помощь (Mezhdunarodny Rabochy Komitet Pomoshchi Golodayushchim Rossii − Mezhrabpom) in R ...

(WIR), a Communist association based in Berlin. In 1930, the WIR established the Workers Camera League in New York City, which soon came to be known as the Film and Photo League. Its goals were to “struggle against and expose reactionary film; to produce documentary films reflecting the lives and struggles of the American workers; and to spread and popularize the great artistic and revolutionary Soviet productions”.

Ethos

In 1934, the still photographers and the filmmakers in the League began having differences of opinion over social and production interests, and by 1936 they had formed separate groups.

Paul Strand Paul Strand (October 16, 1890 – March 31, 1976) was an American photographer and filmmaker who, along with fellow modernist photographers like Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Weston, helped establish photography as an art form in the 20th century. ...

and

Ralph Steiner Ralph Steiner (February 8, 1899 – July 13, 1986) was an American photographer, pioneer documentarian and a key figure among avant-garde filmmakers in the 1930s. Photographer Born in Cleveland, Steiner studied chemistry at Dartmouth, but in ...

established Frontier Films, to continue promoting the original goals, while Strand and Berenice Abbott renamed the original group “The Photo League”. The two organizations remained friendly, with members of each group often participating in activities of the other. The goal of the newly reformed Photo League was to “put the camera back into the hands of honest photographers who ... use it to photograph America”. The League quickly became active in the new field of socially conscious photography. Unlike other photography organizations, it did not espouse a particular visual style but instead concentrated on “integrating formal elements of design and visual aesthetics with the powerful and sympathetic evidence of the human condition”. It also offered basic and advanced classes in photography when there were few such courses in colleges or trade schools. A newsletter, ''Photo Notes'', was printed irregularly, depending upon who was available to do the work and if they could afford the printing costs. More than anything else, though, the League was a gathering place for photographers to share and experience their common artistic and social interests.

Influential members

Among the members of the League were co-founders

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

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 ...

(director of the Photo League School);

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 ...

(from 1936);

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 ...

(from 1942);

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 ...

Jerome Liebling Jerome Liebling (April 16, 1924 Manhattan, New York – July 27, 2011 Northampton, Massachusetts) was an American photographer, filmmaker, and teacher. The documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, who studied with him at Hampshire College, called Liebling ...

, and Lester Talkington (all from 1947);

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 ...

(editor of the Photo League ''Photo Notes'');

Eliot Elisofon Eliot Elisofon (April 17, 1911 – April 7, 1973) was an American documentary photographer and photojournalist. Life From the Lower East Side in New York City, Elisofon graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School in 1929 and Fordham University in ...

(a ''Life'' magazine photographer); Aaron Siskind; Jack Manning (a member of the Harlem Document Group of the League and a ''New York Times'' photographer);

Dan Weiner Dan Weiner (1919–1959) was an American photojournalist, working largely for '' Fortune'' magazine. Weiner specialized in photographs of America at work. Life and work He was born in New York City. He studied painting at the Art Students League a ...

; Bill Witt; Martin Elkort; Lou Bernstein; Sy Kattelson;

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 ...

; and

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 ...

. In the early 1940s, the list of notable photographers who were active in the League or supported their activities also included

Margaret Bourke-White Margaret Bourke-White (; June 14, 1904 – August 27, 1971), an American list of photographers, photographer and documentary photography, documentary photographer, became arguably best known as the first foreign photographer permitted to take p ...

W. Eugene Smith William Eugene Smith (December 30, 1918 – October 15, 1978) was an American photojournalist.Peacock, Scot. "W(illiam) Eugene Smith." ''Contemporary Authors Online'', Gale, 2003. ''Biography In Context'' He has been described as "perhaps the 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 ...

, FSA photographer

Arthur Rothstein Arthur Rothstein (July 17, 1915 – November 11, 1985) was an American photographer. Rothstein is recognized as one of America's premier photojournalists. During a career that spanned five decades, he provoked, entertained and informed the Americ ...

Beaumont Newhall Beaumont Newhall (June 22, 1908 – February 26, 1993) was an American curator, art historian, writer, photographer, and the second director of the George Eastman Museum. His book ''The History of Photography'' remains one of the most significa ...

Nancy Newhall Nancy Wynne Newhall (May 9, 1908 – July 7, 1974) was an American photography critic. She is best known for writing the text to accompany photographs by Ansel Adams and Edward Weston, but was also a widely published writer on photography, conse ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

, Harold Feinstein,

Ansel Adams Ansel Easton Adams (February 20, 1902 – April 22, 1984) was an American landscape photographer and environmentalist known for his black-and-white images of the American West. He helped found Group f/64, an association of photographers advoca ...

Edward Weston Edward Henry Weston (March 24, 1886 – January 1, 1958) was a 20th-century American photographer. He has been called "one of the most innovative and influential American photographers..." and "one of the masters of 20th century photography." ...

and Minor White. The League was the caretaker of the

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 ...

Memorial Collection, which Hine's son had given the League in recognition of its role in fostering social activism through photography as his father had done.

Women photographers

Unusually for artist groups at the time, about one third of League members and participants were women and they served in visible leadership roles such as secretary, treasurer, vice president, and president. For example,

Lucy Ashjian Lucy Ashjian (1907–1993) was an American photographer. She is known as a member of the Photo League a photographer's cooperative in New York City. Her work is included in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Center f ...

, who joined the League as early as 1936, was ''Photo Notes'' editor and board chair of the League's school.

Sonia Handelman Meyer Sonia Handelman Meyer (February 12, 1920 – September 11, 2022) was an American photographer, best known for her street photography as a member of the New York Photo League. Early life Meyer was born in Lakewood Township, New Jersey, in 1920. Sh ...

was both photographer and secretary, the league's only paid position.

Blacklisting

Many of the members who joined before the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

were first-generation Americans who strongly believed in progressive political and social causes. Few were aware of the political origins of the movement of the communist "Workers as Photographers" (''Arbeiterfotografen'') in Berlin. This had in fact little to do with what the organization did as it evolved, but helped its downfall after the war, when it was accused by the FBI of being communist, subversive and anti-American. In December 1947, the Photo League was formally declared a subversive organization and placed on a U.S. Department of Justice

of subversive organizations by Attorney General

Tom C. Clark Thomas Campbell Clark (September 23, 1899June 13, 1977) was an American lawyer who served as the 59th United States Attorney General from 1945 to 1949 and as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1949 to 1967. Clark ...

. Following this announcement, the Photo League appeared on the

Attorney General's List of Subversive Organizations The United States Attorney General's List of Subversive Organizations (AGLOSO) was a list drawn up on April 3, 1947 at the request of the United States Attorney General (and later Supreme Court justice) Tom C. Clark. The list was intended to be a c ...

(AGLOSO) published on March 20, 1948, in the ''

Federal Register The ''Federal Register'' (FR or sometimes Fed. Reg.) is the official journal of the federal government of the United States that contains government agency rules, proposed rules, and public notices. It is published every weekday, except on feder ...

''. At first the League fought back and mounted an impressive ''This Is the Photo League'' exhibition in 1948, but after its member and long-time FBI informer Angela Calomiris had testified in May 1949 that the League was a front organization for the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...

, the Photo League was finished. Recruitment dried up and old members left, including one of its founders and former president,

, as well as Louis Stettner. The League disbanded in 1951. After the League's demise, and with the return of more women to domestic roles in the postwar era, the careers of many promising women artists, such as

and Rae Russel, did not continue.

Legacy

The Photo League was the subject of a 2012 documentary film: ''Ordinary Miracles: The Photo League's New York'' by Daniel Allentuck and Nina Rosenblum. The film traces the rise and demise of the Photo League between 1936 and 1951, and includes interviews with surviving members and a soundtrack including

Woody Guthrie Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (; July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967) was an American singer-songwriter, one of the most significant figures in American folk music. His work focused on themes of American socialism and anti-fascism. He has inspired ...

, the

Andrews Sisters The Andrews Sisters were an American close harmony singing group of the swing and boogie-woogie eras. The group consisted of three sisters: contralto LaVerne Sophia Andrews (July 6, 1911 – May 8, 1967), soprano Maxene Anglyn Andrews (January ...

, and the

Mills Brothers The Mills Brothers, sometimes billed the Four Mills Brothers, and originally known as the Four Kings of Harmony, were an American jazz and traditional pop vocal quartet who made more than 2,000 recordings that sold more than 50 million copies a ...

. ''

Cineaste Magazine ''Cinéaste'' is an American quarterly film magazine that was established in 1967. History and profile The first issue of ''Cinéaste'' was published in Summer 1967. The launching company was Cineaste Publishers, Inc. The founder and editor-in-ch ...

'' calls the film a "fine addition to the library of documentaries dedicated to remembering the cultural work of the old left."

Members of the Photo League

(''Source'': The Jewish Museum New York) * Berenice Abbott, 1898–1991, born Springfield, Ohio * Alexander Alland, 1902–1989, born Sevastopol, Russian Empire (now Russian-occupied Ukraine) * Lucy Ashjian, 1907–1993, born Indianapolis, Indiana * Marynn Older Ausubel, 1912–1980, born New Haven, Connecticut * Lou Bernstein, 1911–2005, born Manhattan, New York * Nancy Bulkeley, born United States *

Rudy Burckhardt Rudy Burckhardt (April 6, 1914 – August 1, 1999) was a Swiss-American filmmaker, and photographer, known for his photographs of the hand-painted billboards that began to dominate the American landscape in the 1940s and 1950s. Life Burckhardt was ...

, 1914–1999, born Basel, Switzerland * Angela Calomiris, 1916–1995, born Manhattan, New York * Vivian Cherry, born 1920, Manhattan, New York * Bernard Cole, 1911–1982, born London, England * Larry Colwell, 1901–1972, born Detroit, Michigan * Ann Cooper, born 1912, Manhattan, New York *

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 ...

, 1919–2008, born Manhattan, New York *

Jack Delano Jack Delano (born Jacob Ovcharov; August 1, 1914 – August 12, 1997) was a Ukrainian immigrant who became an accomplished photographer for the Works Progress Administration, United Fund, and most notably, the Farm Security Administration (FSA). ...

, 1914–1997, born Voroshilovka, Russian Empire (now Ukraine) * Robert Disraeli, 1905–1988, born Cologne, Germany * Arnold Eagle, 1909–1992, born Budapest, Austria-Hungary * John Ebstel, 1922–2000, born Philadelphia, Pennsylvania * Myron Ehrenberg, 1907–1977, born Boston, Massachusetts *

, 1911–1973, born Manhattan, New York * Martin Elkort, 1929–2016, born Manhattan, New York *

, 1918–2005, born Manhattan, New York * Harold Feinstein, 1931–2015, born Coney Island, New York * Godfrey Frankel, 1912–1995, born Cleveland, Ohio * George Gilbert, born 1922, Brooklyn, New York * Leo Goldstein, 1901–1972, born Kishinev, Russian Empire (now Moldova) *

, 1913–1955, born Manhattan, New York * Rosalie Gwathmey, 1908–2001, born Charlotte, North Carolina *

Lewis Wickes 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 ...

, 1874–1940, born Oshkosh, Wisconsin * Morris Huberland, 1909–2003, born Warsaw, Poland * N. (Nathan) Jay Jaffee, 1921–1999, born Brooklyn, New York *

Consuelo Kanaga Consuelo Delesseps Kanaga (May 25, 1894 – 1978) was an American photographer and writer who became well known for her photographs of African-Americans. Life Kanaga was born on May 25, 1894, in Astoria, Oregon, the second child of Amos Ream Ka ...

, 1894–1978, born Astoria, Oregon * Sy (Seymour) Kattelson, born 1923, Manhattan, New York * Sidney Kerner, born 1920, Brooklyn, New York * Gabriella Langendorf, born Vienna, Austria *

, 1918–2014, born Brooklyn, New York * Rebecca Lepkoff, 1916–2014, Manhattan, New York * Jack Lessinger, 1911–1987, born Manhattan, New York *

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 ...

, 1910–1988, born Buckhannon, West Virginia *

, 1914–2001, born Manhattan, New York *

, 1924–2011, born Manhattan, New York * Richard Lyon, 1914–1994, born Manhattan, New York * Sam Mahl, 1913–1992, born Manhattan, New York * Jack Manning, 1920–2001, born Manhattan, New York * Phyllis Dearborn Massar, 1916–2011, born Seattle, Washington * Tosh Matsumoto, 1920–2010, born Vacaville, California * Sonia Handelman Meyer, born 1920, Lakewood, New Jersey *

, 1906–1983, born Vienna, Austria-Hungary *

Barbara Morgan Barbara Radding Morgan (born November 28, 1951) is an American teacher and a former NASA astronaut. She participated in the Teacher in Space program as backup to Christa McAuliffe for the 1986 ill-fated STS-51-L mission of the Space Shuttle ...

, 1900–1992, born Buffalo, Kansas *

Lida Moser Lida Moser (August 17, 1920 – August 11, 2014) was an American-born photographer and author, with a career that spanned more than six decades, before retiring in her 90s. She was known for her photojournalism and street photography as a member ...

, 1920–2014, born Manhattan, New York *

Arnold Newman Arnold Abner Newman (March 3, 1918 – June 6, 2006) was an American photographer, noted for his "environmental portraits" of artists and politicians. He was also known for his carefully composed abstract still life images. Early life and caree ...

, 1918–2006, born Manhattan, New York * Marvin E. Newman, born 1927, Bronx, New York *

, 1921–1985, born Boston, Massachusetts *

Marion Palfi Marion Palfi (1907–1978) was a German-American social-documentary photographer born in Berlin. In 1940 she moved from Germany to New York City to escape the Nazi army and their ideologies. Early life Palfi was the daughter of German theater de ...

, 1907–1978, born Berlin, Germany * Bea Pancoast, 1924–2004, born Manhattan, New York * Sol Prom (Solomon Fabricant), 1906–1989, born Brooklyn, New York * David Robbins, 1912–1981, born United States *

, 1919–2006, born Manhattan, New York *

Edwin Rosskam Louise Rosskam (born Louise Rosenbaum) (March 27, 1910 – April 1, 2003) was a photographer for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) and the Standard Oil Company during the mid-20th century. Together with her husband, Edwin Rosskam (1903� ...

, 1903–1985, born Munich, Germany *

, 1915–1985, born Manhattan, New York * Rae Russel, 1925–2008, born Brooklyn, New York * Edward Schwartz, 1906–2005, born Brooklyn, New York * Joe Schwartz, born 1913, Brooklyn, New York * Ann Zane Shanks, born 1927, Brooklyn, New York * Lee Sievan, 1907–1990, born Manhattan, New York * Larry Silver, born 1934, Bronx, New York * Aaron Siskind, 1903–1991, born Manhattan, New York *

, 1918–1978, born Wichita, Kansas * Fred Stein, 1909–1967, born Dresden, Germany *

, 1899–1986, born Cleveland, Ohio *

, 1922–2016, born Brooklyn, New York * Erika Stone, born 1924, Frankfurt, Germany * Lou Stoumen, 1917–1991, born Springtown, Pennsylvania *

, 1890–1976, born Manhattan, New York * Rolf Tietgens, 1911–1984, born Hamburg, Germany * Elizabeth Timberman, 1908–1988, born Columbus, Ohio * David Vestal, 1924–2013, born Menlo Park, California *

John Vachon John Felix Vachon (May 19, 1914 – April 20, 1975) was a world traveling American photographer. Vachon is remembered most for his photography working for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) as part of the New Deal and for contributions to ' ...

, 1914–1975, born St. Paul, Minnesota *

(Arthur Fellig), 1899–1968, born Zloczów, Austrian Galicia (now Ukraine) *

, 1919–1959, born Manhattan, New York * Sandra Weiner, born 1921, Drohiczyn, Poland * Bill Witt, born 1921, Newark, New Jersey * Ida Wyman, 1926–2019, born Malden, Massachusetts *

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 ...

, 1911–1985, born Manhattan, New York； former president * George S. Zimbel, born 1929, Woburn, Massachusetts * Cuchi White, 1930-2013, born Cleveland, Ohio, under the name of Katheryn Ann White

Notes

References

* Klein, Mason and Evans, Catherine: "The Radical Camera: New York's Photo League, 1936–1951". The Jewish Museum and Yale University Press, 2011 * Maddow, Ben: "Faces: A Narrative History of the Portrait in Photography". New York Graphic Society, Little Brown, 1977 * Newhall, Nancy Wynne: ''This Is the Photo League'', The Photo League, 1948. * Robinson, Gerald H.: ''Photography, History & Science''. Carl Mautz, 2006, chapter V, pages 31–70. * Tucker, Anne Wilkes. ''This Was the Photo League''. Chicago: Stephen Daiter Gallery, 2001 *''History of Photography'', Vol. 18, No. 2 (Summer 1994). Special issue devoted to the Photo League. *''Documentary Photography.'' Life Library of Photography, Time-Life Books, 1972

External links

Photo League Collection, Columbus Museum of Art

History of the Photo League

''Photo League'' (Oxford University Press)

''The Radical Camera: New York's Photo League, 1936–1951'' (Exhibition at The Jewish Museum, 11/4/11 – 3/25/12)
{{Authority control American photography organizations Arts organizations based in New York City Arts organizations established in 1936 Arts organizations disestablished in the 20th century 1936 establishments in New York City 1951 disestablishments in New York (state) Humanist photographers