supporters
This curriculum was created by the Jewish Museum, New York.
This curriculum, created by the Jewish Museum in New York, explores the historical context of the exhibition, provides a glossary, and offers in-depth lessons and activities focusing on nine artworks from the exhibition. Designed for use in elementary, middle, and high-school classrooms. These materials can be used to supplement and enhance students’ ongoing studies.
The Photo League was a New York city–based organization of professional and amateur photographers. A splinter group of the Film and Photo League, it was founded in 1936 by photographers Sid Grossman (1913–1955) and Sol Libsohn (1914–2001). Many of its members were young, first-generation, working-class Jewish Americans.
In keeping with its educational, activist, and aesthetic goals, the League offered lectures, darkroom access, and classes on history and technique, as well as exhibition opportunities. It promoted photography as a ne art and also championed the use of documentary photography to expose social problems and instigate social change.
During its fteen-year existence, the League was among only a handful of places in New York that offered study in documentary photography, and it was unique in offering inexpensive classes and darkroom access.
The majority of the Photo League images were taken in New York City, but members also took photographs across the United States—for instance, in rural communities in the South—and, during World War II, in Europe, Asia, and Central America. Most of the photographs document ordinary people and everyday life and celebrate democracy in all its diversity. The photographs also include images of poverty and other hardships, which is not surprising given the social conscience of most of the members.
The League published a newsletter called Photo Notes, through which its members’ images, educational philosophies, and ideological stances and debates could be further disseminated.
This curriculum was created by the Jewish Museum, New York.
The Radical Camera: New York's Photo League, 1936—1951 was organized by The Jewish Museum, New York and the Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio. The exhibition was made possible by a major grant from the Phillip and Edith Leonian Foundation, with generous support from the National Endowment for the Arts and Betsy Karel.
The Contemporary Jewish Museum presentation is made possible with the Lead Support of the Bernard Osher Jewish Philanthropies Foundation of the Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund. Major support is provided by Nellie and Max Levchin. Supporting sponsors include the Lisa and John Pritzker Family Fund, Baird Private Wealth Management, Jim Joseph Foundation, Denise Garone and Stuart Kogod, Joyce Linker, and Randee and Joseph Seiger.
The Koret and Taube Foundations are the Lead Supporters of the 2012–13 exhibition season.
Header image: Alexander Alland, Untitled (Brooklyn Bridge) (detail), 1938. Gelatin silver print, 8 x 9⅞ in. The Jewish Museum, New York, Purchase: William and Jane Schloss Family Foundation Fund. Copyright © Estate of Alexander Alland, Sr.