The New York Photo League Submitted by Julie Cassen, Mint Museum Docent, 2013 The New York Photo League was a group of creative amateur and professional photographers interested in capturing the street scene in New York City from 1936 -1951. The League’s origin can be traced back to a project of the Workers International Relief (WIR), a Communist leaning association based in Berlin that was interested in making films that featured the lives and struggles of workers. In 1930 the group in New York was called the Worker’s Camera League.1 This early link to a Communist leaning organization would cause trouble for the League in later years. In 1936 the still photographers and filmmakers in the original organization split into two separate groups, one for photographers and the other for filmmakers. Paul Strand and Berenice Abbott renamed the still photography group, The Photo League, and Sol Libsohn and Sid Grossman led the group.2 The history of the Photo League is difficult to reconstruct because there are no archives, or known membership lists. It was run by volunteers and often participants were not “members” but interested photographers who periodically attended meetings, participated in exhibitions or contributed to the group’s newsletter. The League operated a school under the directorship of Sid Grossman and published a newsletter called Photo Notes. They charged meager dues and offered inexpensive darkroom privileges, as well as scholarships to those who could not afford classes.3 They even made old Graflex cameras available to members when they could not afford to buy their own camera. The League also planned social events where people got together to support each other and have fun. Women photographers were made to feel welcome and respected. It may have been because photography was a new field where traditions and stereotypes against women had not been established. This resulted in many women joining the group.4 The depression of the 1930’s brought turmoil, and social and political unrest to the city of New York. Immigrants from around the world filled the streets and tenements. The city was changing quickly, old making way for new. This was the Photo League’s focus. “Members brought a passion for social justice and faith in the dignity of human life.” 5 They were not interested in salon photography where the subject poses for the camera in a studio, or creating works of art to make the subject look beautiful. They set out to photograph the city as they found it, capturing moments from everyday life. Their emphasis was documentary street photography. They were interested in depicting real human conditions and the struggles of the working class. Many Photo League members were children of immigrates and they knew the economic frustrations and social implications of life outside the mainstream. They set out to photograph the communities in which they lived: The Lower East Side, Harlem, Coney Island, little Italy, and the Bowery. They believed photography could help make the world a better place.6 They were inspired by one of their senior members, Lewis Hine. In 1906 Hine had started documenting the terrible conditions that existed for the children working in the mills and mines. It was felt that his photographs significantly influenced the public to make laws regulating child labor. 7 Page 1 of 4 Advances in photography helped to make street photography possible. Cameras no longer had to be placed on tripods. Small hand held cameras and improvements in film allowed the photographer to be quick and mobile.8 The realistic images produced by League members were sought after by a picture-hungry world of illustrated magazines, such as Fortune, Life and Look, and by newspapers and books. 9 The early 1940’s witnessed the country’s transition from New Deal recovery to war mobilization. The League rallied around war related projects and many members enlisted. The focus of League photography changed too. Some members went on to document men on the battlefield; Rosalie Gwathmey focused on civil-rights images; Weegee worked with the police to photograph crime scenes, and others moved across the country and the world to tell their stories. Some were less interested in social issues, but “the social conscience developed at the Photo League continued to influence their work as they moved into professional careers.”10 Most of the members who joined the League before World War II were first generation Americans who believed in progressive political and social causes. Few were aware of the origins of the League and the early link to a Communist organization, which had no connection to the organization that had evolved into the Photo League. In 1947, the Photo League was surprised to find itself listed on the front page of the New York Times as a Communist front organization along with 90 other groups.11 Just before this the League had its highest membership of 178 members. At first the League fought back by launching an exhibition “This is the Photo League”. Well known photographers such as Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, Margaret Bourke- White and others, who were not members of the League, came to their defense, but when League member and long time FBI paid informant Angela Calomiris testified in May 1949 that member Sid Grossman was a Communist and the League was a front organization, other League members ousted Grossman, hoping to save themselves.12 The political atmosphere was toxic, membership dwindled, people left the area and The Photo League closed its doors in 1951. Grossman’s isolation from his friends and persecution by the government made him so paranoid that he locked himself in his apartment and was afraid to go out into the street to photograph. The strain of it all contributed to his early death of a heart attack in 1955 at the age of 43.The irony is that his images never did illustrate any political philosophy and the U.S. government never prosecuted Grossman or the Photo League, for lack of evidence.13 The Photo League has been revered in recent years because of the many engaging photographs made by members and because it created a whole new way to document the real world in which we live. It set the path for the next generation of street photographers.14 Page 2 of 4 End Notes 1. Wikipedia. www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photo_League. 8/24/13 2. Wikipedia 3. Women of the Photo League, p.7 4. Bystander: A History of Street Photography, p. 249 5. ICP News Release 6. Women of the Photo League, p. 8 7. Photographers: History and Culture Through the Camera, p. 55 8. The Radical Camera: New York Photo League, p.7 9. Bystander, p. 254 10. Bystander, p. 251 11. Women of the Photo League, p.9 12. Bystander, p. 252 13. Bystander, p. 252 14. Women of the Photo League, p. 11 Bibliography Jackson, Nancy. 1997. “Lewis W. Hine” in Photographers: History and Culture Through the Camera, p. 48 – 59. New York: Facts on File Inc. Westerbeck, Colin and Joel Meyerowitz 1994. “Social Uplift” in Bystander: A History of Street Photography, p. 241-266. New York: Bulfinch Press/ Little, Brown & Co. Catalogue published in conjunction with the exhibition: Women of the Photo League organized by the Light Factory, Charlotte, N.C. January 24 – March 22, 1998 Klein, Mason and Catherine Evans. 2011. The Radical Camera: New York Photo League 1936 – 1951. Book published in conjunction with the exhibition at The Jewish Museum, New York: Yale University Press International Center for Photography (ICP) News Release, New Histories of Photography: the Photo League, Harlem Document and Related Work. February 2003 Photo League. Wikipedia. www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photo_League. 8/24/13 Page 3 of 4 Page 4 of 4 .