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View, positive, depth, focus,
develop. Those words have
special meanings for photographers, as they had to Martin Elkort
when he joined the Photo League of New York in 1947. The
League was where he learned to see photographically, to
get the best possible picture from each click of the shutter. There
he learned to be positive in his attitude, to see in depth, focus
his viewpoint and develop his skills continuously.
The Photo League was open to anyone, amateur
or pro, and membership included many of the finest, most distinguished
photographers of the day such as: Paul Strand, Berenice Abbott,
Eliot Elisofon, Morris Engel, Sid Grossman, Lewis W. Hine, Arthur
Leipzig, Leon Levinstein, Lisette Model, Beaumont Newhall, Arnold
Newman, Ruth Orkin, Walter Rosenbloom, Arthur Rothstein, Joe Schwartz,
Aaron Siskind, W. Eugene Smith, Lou Stouman, John Vachon, David
Vestal, Weegee, Dan Weiner, Max Yavno and many more. Elkort
studied with and got to know many of those great photographers
and in some cases, such as Aaron Siskind, to call them
friends.
There was always an exhibition of members’ work
on the walls and classes were continuously on offer, taught by
the distinguished roster of senior members. The Photo League,
then located in the basement of a Greenwich Village hotel, was
a clubhouse, gallery, school and social hall for its members until
it closed its doors in 1951, victim of the cold war "witch-hunts"
of the time.
It is difficult, at this remove in time,
to imagine the hysteria that existed in 1947. Goaded by
reactionary columnists such as Westbrook Pegler, Congress’ House
Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), and the Senate committee,
headed by the infamous Senator Joe McCarthy, held hearing after
hearing, seeking to uncover Communists and conspirators. The
Attorney General published a list of individuals and organizations
suspected of such activities and those named typically lost their
jobs and could not find new employment. With no real
evidence, the Photo League found itself on this list. Two
years later, an informant testified during a trial that the League
was a "Communist front." Membership declined
and the media, once supportive, stopped listing the League’s
shows or reviewing them. The
League struggled on for two more years and then, in 1951, closed
its doors.
Elkort’s Photo League education paid off
in 1950, when he sold three prints to Edward
Steichen, then curator of photography at New York’s
Museum of Modern Art.
Note: Click
here for a full in-depth essay by
Peter Marshall on the New York Photo League.
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