Walter Rosenblum has spent over sixty years making photographs that
celebrate the intimacies of family, the innocence and optimism of youth, and
the dignity of poor people. Early in his career, he was influenced by the work
of Paul Strand and Lewis Hine, both of whom were mentors of the Photo League in
New York. At the age of nineteen, Rosenblum began a longtime association with
this organization, which was dedicated to socially concerned documentary
photography. He remained active in the Photo League, as chair of the exhibition
committee, as a league officer, and as the editor of its journal, Photo Notes, until the league disbanded in
1952.
During World War II, Rosenblum worked as a still photographer and filmmaker in Western Europe. Upon returning to the United States, he began a forty-year career teaching photography at Brooklyn College. Independently, Rosenblum continued pursuing documentary projects of life in Harlem, the South Bronx, and Haiti. His photographs capture the life-affirming human qualities of neighborhoods and their residents and reflect the socially conscious approach that was the foundation of his career.
During World War II, Rosenblum worked as a still photographer and filmmaker in Western Europe. Upon returning to the United States, he began a forty-year career teaching photography at Brooklyn College. Independently, Rosenblum continued pursuing documentary projects of life in Harlem, the South Bronx, and Haiti. His photographs capture the life-affirming human qualities of neighborhoods and their residents and reflect the socially conscious approach that was the foundation of his career.
Walter Rosenblum was born in 1919 into a poor Jewish
immigrant family living on New York’s Lower East Side. His mother died when he
was sixteen and to comfort himself he borrowed a camera and began to photograph
in his neighborhood. He took a photography course at the Boys’ Club where he
had a part-time job as part of Roosevelt’s National Youth Administration, and
in 1937 he joined the Photo League, an extraordinarily vibrant community of New
York photographers. It was there that he met Lewis Hine, Berenice Abbott,
Elizabeth McCausland and other notables in the world of photography. He
studied with Paul Strand (who became a life-long friend), and worked on his
first major project, the Pitt Street series. The League not only provided
darkroom space and equipment but also organized lectures and exhibits — Adams,
Cartier-Bresson, Doisneau, Lange, Weston, Weegee — and published the legendary Photo
Notes, of which Rosenblum was editor for several years. Appointed
president in 1941, Rosenblum would be an active member of the League until it
folded in 1952 as a result of being included on the Attorney General’s 1947
list of subversive organizations.
Drafted in 1943 as a U.S. Army Signal Corp combat
photographer, Rosenblum landed on a Normandy beach on D-Day morning, after
which he joined an anti-tank battalion in its liberation drive through France,
Germany and Austria. One of the most decorated photographers of the Second
World War, he took the first motion picture footage of the Dachau concentration
camp. Rosenblum had an extensive teaching career, beginning in 1947 at
Brooklyn College, where he taught until his retirement in 1986. He also taught at the Yale Summer
School of Art and The Cooper Union, as well as abroad in Arles, France, in Sao
Paolo, Brazil, and in Lestans, Italy. In 1980 he received a Guggenheim
Fellowship for his project, “People of the South Bronx.
Following in Hine’s footsteps, Rosenblum’s work
registers the impact on ordinary people — particularly children — of some of
the major events of the twentieth century, from economic depression to
colonialism and armed conflict. Working in East Harlem, Haiti, Europe, and the
South Bronx, he was drawn to situations that revealed the experiences of
immigrants and the poor.
All images are courtesy of Rosenblum Photography
Archive, www.rosenblumphoto.org .
Walter Rosenblum (New York, 1 ottobre 1919 – 23 gennaio 2006)
per oltre mezzo secolo è stato una figura di rilievo per la storia della
fotografia, non solo degli Stati Uniti, ma nel mondo.
Fu infatti, testimone attivo di alcuni dei più significativi
eventi dell’età moderna e sperimentò personalmente, durante gli anni giovanili,
le condizioni degli immigrati in America; visse la grande Depressione, la
seconda Guerra Mondiale e la repressione del maccartismo.
In tempi più recenti poté osservare il mutarsi delle
condizioni di vita delle minoranze di New York e la crescita di una
consapevolezza politica ed estetica nel Terzo Mondo. Rosenblum usò occhi e
apparecchio fotografico per cercare di capire il corso delle vicende umane e
celebrare i sentimenti egli uomini.
All’età di diciassette anni entrò a far parte della Photo League di New York dove incontrò Lewis Hine e studiò con Paul Strand, che contribuirono in modo fondamentale alla formazione della sua visione sull’arte e sulla vita.
In particolare egli condivise con Hine la convinzione che con
la fotografia fosse possibile dimostrare che la dignità è un sentimento
universale, che non si possono fare differenze fra gli uomini in base alla
razza, alle religioni, alla nazionalità o alle condizioni economiche.
Fotografo dell’esercito nel corso della seconda guerra
mondiale, sbarcò il D Day in Normandia, dove, per la morte di un cineoperatore
nel corso dello sbarco, ne dovette prendere il posto per tutto il conflitto
attraversando così la Francia, la Germania,l’Austria e realizzando il primo
film sul campo di concentramento di Dachau appena liberato.
Per le coraggiose azioni svolte durante il combattimento fu
anche insignito della “Silver Star”, della “Bronze Star”, del “Purple Heart” e
la Unit Citation presidenziale, divenendo uno dei fotografi più decorati della
Seconda Guerra Mondiale.
Ma Rosenblum nel suo percorso professionale non mancò di
fotografare i quartieri dove vivevano gli immigrati di New York e del South
Bronx con gli insediamenti della nuova immigrazione, e in seguito spingendosi
anche ad Haiti, Francia, Italia, Cuba, Cina, nell’ Unione Sovietica e in
Brasile.
Da quest’immensa ricchezza di esperienze e dal prolungato
rapporto con le diverse culture la visione fotografica di Rosenblum divenne
testimone della condizione umana come di una comunità globale in cui i bisogni
fondamentali, i valori e le aspirazioni esistenziali sono universalmente
condivisi.
Rosenblum cercò così di sottolineare la dignità dell’essere
umano, con i suoi soggetti mai semplici vittime, ma persone integre e
complesse, la cui umanità sopravvive intatta malgrado le circostanze avverse.
La sua macchina fotografica fu strumento affinché gli uomini
si potessero riconoscere nelle loro azioni e comportamenti, nella speranza che
la comprensione delle dinamiche interpersonali, potesse estinguere ignoranza e
paura e le principali cause di tante ingiustizie sociali.
Le opere di Walter Rosenblum sono conservate in prestigiose
collezioni, quali il J.Paul Getty Museum di Malibù, alla Library of Congress di
Washington, al MoMA, al Metropolitan Museum of Art e all’ICP di New York, alla
Bibliotheque Nazionale de France di Parigi ed altri ancora.
All images © Walter Rosenblum
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