Note: Coming across this press release from Doyle New York yesterday, I felt compelled to share it. I first "consciously" discovered Arthur Rothstein's photographs over the last couple of years on Tom Clark's Beyond The Pale blog, which has featured a remarkable history of the Great Depression literally seen through the lenses of the great photographers who were employed by various federal agencies during the period and charged with recording contemporary American history.
I say "consciously" discovered because, like many of these photographers, one couldn't grow up during the later 20th century in the United States without having seen a good deal of Rothstein's photojournalism. I will try to attend the auction. The prices look to be within reach of interested collectors and very modest for works of this quality and provenance.
Arthur Rothstein at work
NEW YORK, N.Y.-
Doyle New York
to auction the Arthur Rothstein Photograph Collection on Thursday,
October 13, 2011 at 10am. The auction offers almost two thousand prints,
vintage through 1980s, from the collection of his wife, Grace
Rothstein. The images span Rothstein's long career as an award-winning
photojournalist, and feature iconic Depression-era images including his
iconic Dust storm, Cimarron County, Oklahoma; as well as photographs of
African-Americans in the rural South, England after the Blitz, Jewish
refugees in Shangai, and stark images of rural China.
The Tennessee Valley Authority brings power to the South, Alabama, 1942
ARTHUR ROTHSTEIN
Arthur Rothstein was born in New York City in 1915 and became one of
the most prolific and influential photographers of the 20th century.
The broad scope of his work parallels that of American life from the
Great Depression through the Reagan years, as well as international
events from post-War famine in China to May Day in Moscow’s Red Square
at the height of the Cold War. From Welsh coal miners to the Reichstag
in ruins, to the unique documentation of the Jewish refugee population
in Shanghai after World War II, it was said of Arthur Rothstein that he
went everywhere, saw everything and brought his camera.
The images in the Arthur Rothstein Photograph Collection range from
the historical events that touched us all – Roosevelt meets with
Churchill, President Kennedy’s funeral procession – to images equally
profound, if on a smaller scale. We see, in contrast to the national
display of mourning for President Kennedy, the devastation of an
anonymous personal loss as a father places his emaciated son, stricken
by famine, in a grave in rural China in the forties. Who will bear
witness to this tragedy, the photographer seems to say rhetorically. His
answer: Now we all will.
Night view, downtown Dallas, January 1942
And similarly, there is the power of the iconic Dust Storm, Cimarron
County image, widely regarded as one of the most ubiquitous images of
the 20th century. We also see dignity in the face of the unemployed
black man in Alabama during the Depression, adjusting his tie in the
mirror, getting ready for Saturday night. And the regal face of a young
girl in the window of a mud shack in Gee’s Bend. But there is a subtle
humor as well. Arthur Rothstein was a pioneer in the use of what he
called the “third effect”, a message that emerges when an image contains
the wry juxtaposition of the written word. A shoe shine man in New York
City sits under a sign quoting Disraeli on the importance of being in
the right place when opportunity knocks. And then there is the display
of dazzling technical expertise as pitcher Eddie Lopat delivers a
fastball, his arm moving faster than the shutter speed. The Arthur
Rothstein Photograph Collection is stunning in its power, scope,
technical prowess and beauty.
Arthur Rothstein was a gifted student, graduating from Stuyvesant
High School and enrolling in Columbia College at age sixteen as a
chemistry major. He developed an interest in photography from the
technical side, working with film development techniques and eventually
becoming a founding member of the camera club at Columbia. Upon
graduation he was offered a job by Columbia economist Roy Stryker.
Stryker had been asked by colleagues in the Roosevelt administration to
form a group of documentary photographers to work within what eventually
became known as the Farm Security Administration. In addition to Arthur
Rothstein, the FSA photographers included Dorothea Lange, Ben Shahn,
Walker Evans, Gordon Parks, Russell Lee, Carl Mydans, John Vachon and
Marion Post Walcott, among others. Together they produced some of the
defining images of the 20th century. Many of the works in this
collection are among them.
Girlie show at carnival, Bozeman, Montana, Summer 1939
One of the most extraordinary things about Arthur Rothstein was that
he excelled in so many different photographic disciplines. He was not
at all satisfied to be a documentary photographer alone, although he was
a great one. He also excelled as a news photographer, a contract
assignment photographer, a food photographer (often working with the
food stylist Sylvia Schur), a commercial advertising photographer, and,
of course, a pure visual artist, evidence of which is abundant
throughout this collection. When asked what he felt his greatest
strength was as a photographer, he invariably replied with one word:
versatility.
Arthur Rothstein served during World War II in the Army Signal Corps
and was stationed primarily in what is now known as Myanmar, formerly
Burma. After the war, he resumed his career at Look magazine, in the
position of Technical Director of Photography, a title he held until
Look ceased publication in 1970. In that capacity he continued to travel
the world on assignment, often bringing his wife Grace, an accomplished
portrait photographer in her own right, with him to assist. He placed
particular emphasis on the word “technical” as it appeared in his title
with his name on the Look masthead. This was a part of his personality
that permeated his life: he was an extraordinarily self-assured and
competent person and wanted to emphasize that at the core of his craft
was a comprehensive technical knowledge. This technical emphasis, a
vestige of his earliest interest in photography as a chemistry student
at Columbia, never left him. He continued to explore and develop new
photographic techniques, including the Xograph three dimensional photo
system. Arthur Rothstein was renowned for his technical expertise, and
film and camera manufacturers, including Leica, Hasselblad, Kodak and
Polaroid, would often send him prototypes as a routine part of their
R&D process. He authored numerous published books, some of which
were compilations of his documentary and other photographs, but several
of his books were of a purely technical nature.
Administering the Darrow photopolygraph test, Narcotic Farm, Kentucky 1930
But beyond all of this expertise, or perhaps because of it, we can
see in this collection the profound gifts of an extremely intelligent
communicator. On a personal note, I can say unequivocally that Arthur
Rothstein had the rare ability to speak in complete, fully formed
paragraphs. If you asked him question, the response would start with a
topic sentence, followed by a declarative exposition, and finally, a
recapitulating conclusion. This, it seems, was a skill cultivated more
in the education of people born a hundred years ago than it is today. It
was the ability to improvise and compose simultaneously for the purpose
of enhancing communication. We see this expressed in his craft,
analogous to a great jazz solo: extemporaneous and visceral, but
elegantly structured. Moments in time, fully formed.
Syringes seized from patients admitted to Narcotic Farm, Kentucky. 1930
Throughout his life Arthur Rothstein sought to combine his
prodigious technical and compositional skills in the service of
compelling visual communication. He frequently referred to a quote from
one of his influences, the photographer Lewis Hine, that the purpose of a
photograph is “to show what needs to be appreciated and to show what
needs to be changed.” The Arthur Rothstein Photograph Collection is
evidence of his abundant success in advancing that ideal.
"Because powerful images are fixed in the mind more readily than
words, the photographer needs no interpreter. A photograph means the
same thing all over the world and no translator is required. Photography
is truly a universal language, transcending all boundaries of race,
politics and nationality." -- Arthur Rothstein
Migratory worker, Robstown, Texas, January 1942
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