Posted on 01/18/2011 11:21:45 AM PST by Borges
Milton Rogovin, a social documentary photographer who built a life's work by looking through a lens at people who were invisible to others, died Tuesday at age 101.
Rogovin was in hospice care after a brief illness and died at his home in Buffalo surrounded by family, said his son, Mark.
After being blacklisted in the communist scare of the 1950s, Rogovin dedicated his life to photography. His pictures documented the lives of the poor, the dispossessed, the working class — in particular those living in a six-square-block neighborhood in Buffalo near his optometry practice.
"He referred to these people as the 'forgotten ones,'" his son said. "These were poor and working people who were not ever in the limelight."
Rogovin found "forgotten ones" on New York Indian reservations and in far-flung corners of China, Zimbabwe, France, Scotland and Spain.
His first project was a documentary series on Buffalo's black churches. Living on his wife's schoolteacher salary, he traveled to Appalachia, Chile and Mexico to take portraits of working people — always using a vintage Rolleiflex, a bare bulb flash, occasionally a tripod, and black and white film.
Born in New York City in 1909, Rogovin moved to Buffalo in 1938 to practice as an optometrist. He married Anne Setters in 1942, the same year he bought his first camera and was drafted into the U.S. Army. After returning from the war, he organized an optometrists' union in Buffalo and served as a librarian in the city's Communist Party. In 1957, he was called before the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Gee. I shoulda been a hotographer. My mom wouldn’t let me.
Oops. Can you guys correct the headline? Thanks!
Hotography sounds like a fun pastime............
He was a commie who photographed poor people. I guess that makes him an artist by definition. The quality of his work is immaterial to his identification as a great documentarian. [/s]
The only thing worse than a hotographer is a hotographer who is a Commie.
Good find,thanks ....screw the purist
Do you always “pimp” for known communists?
A commie POS who lived to a ripe old age while American boys died in Vietnam and Korea to protect this POS liberty.
Milton has requested that you make donations to the Western New York Peace Center or Military Families Speak Out. Our contributions together will really help further the cause of PeaceMade me wish I hadn't given the site a hit. ;o(
“family snapshots taken without forethought, composition, or artistic sensibility.”
Zone System ring a bell?Didnt think so...You know not of what you speak.
His photographs are boring and pointless. Not art. I guess you’re impressed by his technique. I want more. I want creativity and artistic expression. Metering out his exposure is nice, but there ought to be something more.
I think those are the guys who shoot for Playboy, et al...
Huh? I post obits every which way. It’s news.
RIP.
The dude was a commie, you know. :)
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