Aaron Siskind

Hand and Hammer from Harlem Document, 1934
Silver Print, 14" x 11"

Aaron Siskind was an American photographer who engaged with many of the ideas of Abstract Expressionism popular in 1940s New York City, inflecting photography with an eye towards the flatness of the picture plane. Born in a Russian-Jewish immigrant family in 1903, his interest in poetry and music led him to believe he would become a writer. Siskind earned his Bachelor of Social Science degree in Literature from the College of the City of New York in 1926 and went on to teach English in the New York City public school system for 21 years. A camera given as a gift at his wedding by Sidonie Glaller in 1930 galvanized his interest in photography. With his newfound love for photography, Siskind became an enthusiastic member of the New York Photo League. Siskind became director of the Photo League's Feature Group in 1936, leading a unit of photographers who produced photo-essays of working-class, urban life, with titles such as The Most Crowded Block in the World. His photographs of Harlem exemplify the spirit of his first encounters with the camera, which he used to gain access to and frame the empirical world of Depression-era New York City like many of his contemporaries. Even in these referential, representational photographs, Siskind's eye for form remains salient. These early photographs form the backdrop to the later work that came to define his artistic vision: his drive to obscure his subject by focusing on form at the expense of content and context. His approach to making a picture with intimate framing, emphasis on texture, line, and visual rhymes, created images that obscure content and abstract the empirical world.

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