Arthur Rothstein

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Arthur Rothstein (1938)

Arthur Rothstein (born July 17, 1915 in New York , † November 11, 1985 in New Rochelle , New York ) was an American photographer .

He is best known for his social documentary photographs from the 1930s, in which the consequences of the Great Depression are captured. While working as a press photographer for Look and Parade magazines (1940–1981), he received numerous awards.

Life

Rothstein grew up in New York. From a young age he showed an interest in photography. He set up a darkroom in the basement of his parents' house where he could learn various photographic techniques, and exhibited locally for the first time during his high school years. At Columbia University , where he studied physics and chemistry , he founded a photo club and organized exhibitions and other events for him, including a lecture by Edward Steichen . He financed his studies in part with recordings that he made for the final theses of fellow students . Rothstein received his BA in 1935.

During his studies, Rothstein became acquainted with Roy Stryker , professor of economics at Columbia University. During this time, Stryker, together with the agricultural scientist and Secretary of State in the US Department of Agriculture Rexford Tugwell , prepared the establishment of what would later become the Farm Security Administration (FSA), an important institution of the New Deal whose task was to alleviate the plight of the impoverished rural population during the Great Depression duration. On behalf of Stryker, Rothstein and other students put together photographs for a planned illustrated book, which then did not materialize.

Stryker came to the conclusion that the photographic documentation of the living conditions of those affected was a prerequisite for the political acceptance of government aid programs for American farmers. Rothstein was the first photographer whom he offered to work on the project. Rothstein, was uncertain how the planned despite high tuition fees and financial difficulties his family medical school could accommodate, accepted. At the FSA he then worked with colleagues such as Walker Evans , Dorothea Lange , Russell Lee , Carl Mydans , Gordon Parks and Ben Shahn , and with them shaped the style of American documentary photography of the time. Her works determine the perception of this era of American history to this day and are considered the epitome of socially committed photography.

Dust Bowl, Cimarron County, Oklahoma (1936)
Gee's Bend, Alabama, Artelia Bendolph (1937)

Rothstein, who by then had hardly known anything other than New York, took a liking to the trips he made for the FSA, the relative freedom he was granted as part of the project, and the conviction that he had one with his work support progressive policies. The first photo trip took him to the Blue Ridge Mountains in 1935 , where he documented the vanishing world of people who were resettled in the course of the designation of Shenandoah National Park . Here he practiced for the first time a technique that he later called "unobtrusive camera" and with which he first won the trust of people in order to be able to photograph them in everyday situations. He learned from Evans and Shahn, who had already made a name for themselves as photographers, how to choose and present the motifs in such a way that the images convey a message. Stryker instructed him to pay attention to everyday details, such as old shoes or a window clogged with rags.

In 1936 Rothstein was commissioned to document the consequences of soil erosion and dust storms in the so-called Dust Bowl in Oklahoma , Kansas and Texas . After living in the area for several months, he took what is perhaps his best-known photo, Dust Bowl, Cimarron County , Oklahoma , of a farmer with his two children in the middle of a dust storm. A recording of Rothstein's Gee's Bend in Alabama , in which the girl Artelia Bendolph leans out of the window of her parents' wooden hut , also became famous . The newspaper clippings glued to the inside of the makeshift window shutter point to the contrast between the promise of consumption and the reality of poverty. Such juxtapositions were among the preferred stylistic devices of documentary photography at the time.

The Bleached Skull of a Steer on the Dry Sun-Baked Earth of the South Dakota Badlands (1936)

Rothstein's photo Bleached Skull, South Dakota Badlands from May 1936, the picture of a bleached cattle skull on parched ground , caused controversy . The Associated Press news agency used the photo in 1937 to illustrate the aftermath of drought in the Midwest. In fact, Rothstein was mainly interested in the photographic possibilities of the subject and had taken a series of photographs of the skull against various backgrounds without naming them. A conservative newspaper from Fargo raised the charge of politically motivated manipulation: The FSA presented the drought conditions worse than they were. The claim seemed to be borne out when Rothstein's series of photos were found in the FSA's holdings after the AP publication. Politicians picked up on the newspaper's allegations and spoke of "propaganda" by the FSA.

Rothstein worked for the FSA until 1940. Because of his passion for photography, he had since given up plans to study medicine and instead became a photojournalist, initially for Look magazine . After the USA entered World War II in 1941, he initially served in the Office of War Information , for which he took photos in New York until 1943. He then photographed for the US Army Signal Corps in China , Burma and India until 1946 .

In 1946, Rothstein returned to Look , where he took over the management of the photo department, a position he held until the magazine was discontinued in 1971. He then co-founded the American Society of Magazine Photographers and was the editor of their magazine Infinity for a while . In 1972 he took up a position as editor at Parade , where between 1978 and 1981 he again had the photo department of a large American magazine under himself. Since his photos were presented at George Eastman House in 1956, there had been a number of solo exhibitions of his photographic work, including a traveling exhibition by the United States Information Service , which from 1974 toured sixty countries. Rothstein's photos were also shown in numerous collective exhibitions.

Rothstein taught photography at Columbia University, Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry and the Parsons School of Design in New York and was a professor at the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University . Over the course of his professional life, Rothstein has received over fifty awards, including the National Press Photographers Association Award. Since 1968 he was a fellow of the Royal Photographic Society and since 1979 of the Photographic Historical Society of New York. At times he was also on the jury for the Pulitzer Prize for Photography .

Arthur Rothstein died in New Rochelle, New York State in 1985 at the age of 70.

Exhibitions

Publications

  • Photojournalism. Pictures for Magazines and Newspapers. American Photographic Book Publishing Company, New York 1956.
  • Creative Color in Photography. Chilton Books, Philadelphia 1963.
  • Color Photography Now. American Photographic Book Publishing Company, New York 1970.
  • Depression Years. As Photographed by Arthur Rothstein. Dover, New York 1978, ISBN 0-48623-590-4 .
  • Arthur Rothstein's America in Photographs, 1930–1980. Dover, New York 1984, ISBN 0-48624-735-X .
  • Documentary Photography. Focal Press, Boston 1986, ISBN 0-24051-754-7 .

literature

  • Katherine Bussard: Arthur Rothstein. In: Lynne Warren (Ed.): Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Photography. Routledge, New York 2006, Vol. 3, ISBN 0-41597-667-7 , pp. 1358-1361.

Web links

Commons : Arthur Rothstein  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Rothstein, Arthur
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American photographer
DATE OF BIRTH July 17, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City
DATE OF DEATH November 11, 1985
Place of death New Rochelle