Milton Rogovin

Milton Rogovin (born December 30, 1909 in New York City , † January 18, 2011 in Buffalo , New York ) was an American social documentary photographer who worked with other important photographers of this art, such as Lewis Hine , Jacob August Riis , Dorothea Lange or Gordon Parks is called. His work is exhibited in the Library of Congress , the J. Paul Getty Museum , the Center for Creative Photography, and other major museums and institutes.

Youth and education

Milton Rogovin was born in Brooklyn , New York City, in 1909, the youngest son of Jacob Rogovin and his wife Dora . Jacob Rogovin was from the time of the 1904 Russian Empire belonging Lithuania immigrated to the United States; his wife Dora followed him to the USA with their son Sam, who was born in Lithuania in 1904, in the following year. In 1907 Louis, the second son of the family, was born. Milton Rogovin's parents ran a small shop for textiles and housewares, initially in Manhattan on Park Avenue near 112th Street, and from 1920 in Brooklyn in the Bay Ridge section. From 1920, Milton Rogovin attended Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan, then took up a degree in optometry (ophthalmic optics) at Columbia University , which he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1931 . Parents' business was in dire straits as a result of the Great Depression . In 1931 they were forced to file for bankruptcy. A few months later, his father died of a heart attack .

Early career years

After graduating, he worked as an optician in Manhattan. The loss of the parental business and the realization that the economic bankruptcy of his parents was by no means an individual fate, but rather large parts of American society suffered just like them from the desperate economic conditions, prompted Rogovin to become politically active. In an interview in 2004, he said that his real education began after Columbia University. "I could no longer be indifferent to the problems of people, especially the poor, the forgotten ones." ( " People's problems could no longer be the same to me, especially not the problems of the poor, the 'forgotten'" ) " I was a product of the Great Depression and what I saw and experienced myself made me politically active. " ( "I was a product of the Great Depression. What I saw and what happened to myself made me politically active." ) He began reading the writings of left-wing political activists, such as Mike Gold's 1930 bestseller "Jews without money ” , or “ Change the World ” from 1937, also the work of the anarchist and peace activist Emma Goldman . They reinforced his belief that a change in economic and political conditions had to be brought about. He began attending classes at the Communist Party- run New York Workers School and read communist newspapers such as The Daily Worker . It was at this time that he first came into contact with the social-documentary work of the photographers Jacob August Riis and Lewis Hine .

In 1938, Rogovin moved to Buffalo and opened his own optician's store the next year. In Buffalo, Milton Rogovin met his future wife Anne. (Anne, née Snetsky - later changed to Setters / * August 4, 1918 in Buffalo; † July 7, 2003; her parents, Rose and Chaim Snetsky, immigrated to the USA from the Ukraine ). Milton Rogovin and Anne Snetsky were married on April 7, 1942.

In November of the same year, Rogovin was drafted into the US Army and trained as an X-ray technician for the Air Force . While attending an X-ray training school in Indiana in 1943 , a photo of a local waterfall won him first prize in a photography competition organized by the school; he had just bought his first camera the year before. In 1944, Rogovin's first daughter, Ellen, was born. Because of his temporary transfer to the ground forces, he had no opportunity to see her before his station in England . In England he worked as an optometrist in a hospital in Cirencester until his retirement in 1945 ; then he returned to Buffalo in 1945 and helped organize a local branch of the Optical Workers Union in that city. He became a member of the local section of the Communist Party and campaigned within the American civil rights movement for equality for Afro-Americans, as well as for the release of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg . His son Mark was born in 1946, followed by his second daughter Paula in 1947.

Work as a photographer

Rogovin's union involvement and his membership in the Communist Party inevitably led the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) to target him in the tense atmosphere of the so-called Cold War and the associated anti-communist hysteria of the McCarthy era . On October 3, 1957, Milton Rogovin was summoned to appear before the HUAC. Rogovin refused to make a statement, or "to name names" ( "naming names" - means: to denounce others) and invoked his right to remain silent ( 5th Amendment ). "I was active in radical movements at that time, especially in the African-American community, and of course I refused to answer their questions." ( "I was active in [left] radical movements at the time, especially in [political groups] of the Afro-American community. And of course I refused to answer their [the HUAC] questions." Rogovin said in 2000 in one Interview with Buffalo News.

The newspapers in Buffalo but subtitled: "Buffalo's Number One Red," ( "Buffalo Red Number 1" ), or "Rogovin, named as Top Red in Buffalo, Balks at Nearly all queries" ( "Rogovin, as a top Red in Buffalo referred to, refused to answer almost all questions ” ) ( Buffalo Evening News ). As a result, Milton Rogovin and his wife Anne were interrogated several times by the FBI . The FBI also questioned neighbors, who then gave names or license plates of cars parked in front of the Rogovins' house, etc. The effects of this witch hunt were devastating. The store's sales fell by more than half. When Anne Rogovin, which issued a public school education until then, refused the so-called "Loyalty Oath" ( "Allegiance" [to the United States Constitution] ) store for the teaching staff in public schools, she had to leave school . She found a new job with Erie 1 BOCES ( Boards of Cooperative Educational Services ) and has been teaching mentally handicapped children with great success for more than 30 years; she also published numerous books on child rearing. And it wasn't just the Rogovin's professional life that was affected; the neighbors treated the entire family like lepers. Numerous neighbors forbade their children to play with Rogovin's children.

Rogovin did not let this stigmatization get him down or confused, but looked for other ways of expressing his political concern. "My voice was essentially silenced, so I thought that photographing people ... I would be able to speak out about the problems of people, this time through my photography." ( "My voice had been silenced, so I thought that by photographing people ... [anyway] I could talk about their problems. This time through my photographs." )

His first project was the “Storefront Church” photo series. WEBDu Bois , one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People , had suggested it. Rogovin had already read some of Burghardt's writings, such as "Souls of Black Folk" and "Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil" . His friend William H. Tallmadge , professor of music at Buffalo State College , who intended to tape record the chants and music in these churches, also encouraged him to take photographs. Tallmadge completed his work after three months. Rogovin took pictures of these small churches and these people for 3 years before he finished his work. He met the renowned photographer Minor White . White was a curator at George Eastman House , taught photography at the Rochester Institute of Technology, and co-founded and edited the photography magazine Aperture . White published Rogovin's "Storefront Church" series in Aperture and advised him on the further development of his recording technology. White also suggested to Rogovin to produce more extensive picture sequences on a single topic and to structure these in turn through smaller, self-contained picture series - a suggestion that Rogovin subsequently developed into his own art style. By combining cross-sectional photo series with (temporal) longitudinal sections and converting his diptychs to triptychs and finally to quartets, he enabled the viewer to gain deeper insights into the effects of economic and social developments over a longer period of time.

In 1972 he received his Masters of Arts in American Studies from the University at Buffalo . He then taught documentary photography there from 1972 to 1974. In 1975 Rogovin held his first major exhibition at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo. In the following years he published several books with his sequences and presented his work at other exhibitions. Many of his works are in the collections of museums such as the National Library of France in Paris , the Museum of Modern Art in New York City , the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London to see .

In his later years, his health deteriorated and Rogovin became dependent on a wheelchair, so he withdrew from photography. In 2009 Rogovin was nominated for a National Medal of Arts , but not awarded.

Works (photo series)

• Store Front Churches. in: Aperture, vol. 10: 2, pp. 62-85, Rochester NY, 1962.
• The Lower West Side. With an appreciation by Paul Strand. Buffalo, NY: Albright-Knox Gallery, 1975.
• Dennis Maloney (ed). Windows That Open Inward: Images of Chile. Photographs by Milton Rogovin, Poems by Pablo Neruda . White Pine Press, Buffalo & New York 1985.
• Cheryl Brutvan et al., Milton Rogovin: The Forgotten Ones. Seattle & London: University of Washington Press, 1985.
• Jonathan Friedlander: Sojourners and Settlers. Includes portfolio of Milton Rogovin photographs from his Yemeni series. University of Utah Press. 1988.
• Frisch, Michael: Portraits in Steel. Photographs by Milton Rogovin. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York 1993.
• Robert Coles et al .: Triptychs: Buffalo's Lower West side Revisited. Photographs by Milton Rogovin. With essay by JoAnn Wypijewski. WW Norton & Co, New York & London 1994.
• Robert Doherty: The Bonds Between Us, Family Portraits from Around the World. White Pine Press, Buffalo & New York 2001.
• Dave Isay et al., Milton Rogovin: The Forgotten Ones. The Quantuck Lane Press, New York 2003.
• Dennis Maloney (ed) .: With Eyes and Soul: Images of Cuba. Poems by Nancy Morejon , Photographs by Milton Rogovin. White Pine Press, Buffalo & New York 2004.
• The Mining Photographs. Essay by Judith Keller. Getty Publications, Los Angeles, California. 2005
• Nada Queda Atrás. Poems by Carlos Alberto Trujillo , Photographs by Milton Rogovin. Ediciones Museo de Arte Moderno Chiloe, Chile. 2008

Web links

• Biography on www.miltonrogovin.com
• Entry on the website of the J. Paul Getty Museum
• Milton Rogovin, Photographer, Dies at 101 , Jan. 18, 2011, The New York Times
• Milton Rogovin's photo series (excerpts) Folio Downloads - pdf

Individual evidence

1. ↑ [1]
2. ↑ ^{a b c} American Suburb X September 1, 2004: Interview Robert Hirsch with Milton Rogovin ( Memento of the original from July 28, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ↑ British Journal of Photography October 29, 2008: The Forgotten Ones ( Memento of the original from January 22, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ↑ New York Times August 28, 1994: A Neighborhood in Waves
5. ↑ About Anne Rogovin
6. ^ People's World February 10, 2006: The rich have their own photographers. I photograph the poor, the forgotten ones.
7. ↑ B&W Photography: Milton Rogovin ( Memento of the original from May 24, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
8. ↑ ^{a b c} Buffalo News August 21, 2010: Rogovin is focus of events celebrating his life and career  ( page can no longer be accessed , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
9. ^ New York Times January 18, 2011: Obituary: Milton Rogovin, Photographer, Dies at 101
10. ↑ ^{a b} Buffalo News January 21, 2011: Milton Rogovin 1909–2011 ( Memento of February 3, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
11. ↑ BuffaloNews.com: Celebrating Milton Rogovin. (Video) ( Memento from October 25, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
12. ↑ Milton Rogovin. Homepage. About Anne Rogovin
13. ↑ Book publications by Anne Rogovin
14. ↑ npr.org. June 14, 2003: Milton Rogovin, Photographing 'The Forgotten Ones'
15. ^ Milton Rogovin: Educational Guides and Folios. - s. Folio Downloads here: Storefront Churches
16. ↑ Rogovin, Milton. "Store Front Churches" in Aperture, vol. 10: 2, pp. 62-85, Rochester NY, 1962.
17. ↑ Buffalo Spree Magazine November 2004: The essential Rogovin: An in-depth conversation. By Robert Hirsch
18. ↑ British Journal of Photography October 29, 2008: The forgotten ones ( Memento of the original from January 22, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
19. ↑ ^{a b} B & W Photography: Milton Rogovin ( Memento of the original from January 28, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.