Sid Grossman

Sid Grossman (born June 25, 1913 in New York City , † December 31, 1955 ) was an American photojournalist and co-founder of the Photo League .

Career

Grossman attended Bronx High School from 1929-32 and was a member of the school's photography club. In 1934 he attended the City College of New York. He began his career as a freelance photojournalist while attending the City College of New York . In 1936 he co-founded the Photo League with Sol Libsohn. 1938-1939 he worked with Libsohn on a project that documented the changes in Chelsea and in 1939 he worked on a series that documented life on the street in Harlem . In the summer of 1940, Grossman was touring the Dust Bowl areas, photographing union activities and rural life.

During World War II, Grossman's projects were focused on war; For example, from 1942 to 1943 he photographed the activities of the Red Cross, civil defense, students, volunteer agricultural work by students and caring for small children. Grossman joined the army in 1943 and was stationed in Panama. During 1945 he photographed the Christo Negro de Portobelo Festival (Festival of the Black Christ) in Portobelo , Panama, and traveled to Guatemala and the Galapagos Islands.

Grossman's most productive years as a photographer were shortly after World War II. He photographed Coney Island in the summers of 1947 and 1948 and the San Gennaro Festival on Mulberry Street in Manhattan's Little Italy in 1948.

Grossman and the Photo League came into conflict with the FBI in 1949 . He had been under surveillance since 1940 and the FBI suspected him of dealing with communists. The FBI expanded its investigation to include Grossman's associate at the Photo League and eventually found that the Photo League was a Communist front organization and that some of its members were from the Communist Party . In 1951 the Photo League was dissolved.

From 1949 Grossman spent the summers in Provincetown , Massachusetts, where he studied painting with Hans Hofmann and opened a photography school. During the winter months he gave private lessons in New York. Among his students was Lisette Model , who signed up for class with him as a gesture of support. His later work focused on the landscape and people of Cape Cod and was published posthumously in the 1959 book Journey to the Cape .

literature

• Hans-Michael Koetzle: Photographers AZ. Taschen, Cologne 2015, ISBN 978-3-8365-5433-6 , pp. 226–227. (Short biography with selected exhibitions and publications)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Sid Grossman (National Gallery of Art) ( Memento of the original from August 5, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.