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The Photo League

The Photo League was a cooperative of photographers in New York who banded together around a range of common social and creative causes. Founded in 1936, the League included some of the most noted American photographers of the mid-20th century among its members. It ceased operations in 1951 following its placement in 1947 on the U.S. Department of Justice blacklist with accusations that it was a communist, anti-American organization. The League's origins traced back to a project of the Workers International Relief (WIR), a communist association based in Berlin. In 1930 the WIR established the Workers Camera League in New York City, which soon came to be known as the Film and Photo League. Its goals were to 'struggle against and expose reactionary film; to produce documentary films reflecting the lives and struggles of the American workers; and to spread and popularize the great artistic and revolutionary Soviet productions' (Anne Tucker, in: The Photo League: Photography as a Social Force. Modern Photography. p. 90, 1979).

Members of the Photo League

Members of the Photo League (source: The Jewish Museum New York)

Berenice ABBOTT, Alexander ALLAND, Lucy ASHJIAN, Marynn Older AUSUBEL, Lou BERNSTEIN, Nancy BULKELEY, Rudy BURCKHARDT, Angela CALOMIRIS, Vivian CHERRY, Bernard COLE, Larry COLWELL, Ann COOPER, Harold CORSINI, Jack DELANO, Robert DISRAELI, Arnold EAGLE, John EBSTEL, Myron EHRENBERG, Eliot ELISOFON, Martin ELKORT, Morris ENGEL, Harold FEINSTEIN, Godfrey FRANKEL, George GILBERT, Leo GOLDSTEIN, Sid GROSSMAN, Rosalie GWATHMEY, Lewis W. HINE, Morris HUBERLAND, Nathan Jay JAFFEE, Consuelo KANAGA, Seymour KATTELSON, Sidney KERNER, Gabriella LANGENDORF, Arthur LEIPZIG, Rebecca LEPKOFF, Jack LESSINGER, Leon LEVINSTEIN, Sol LIBSOHN, Jerome LIEBLING, Richard LYON, Sam MAHL, Jack MANNING, Phyllis DEARBORN MASSAR, Tosh MATSUMOTO, Sonia HANDELMAN MEYER, Lisette MODEL, Barbara MORGAN, Lida MOSER, Arnold NEWMAN, Marvin E. NEWMAN, Ruth ORKIN, Marion PALFI, Bea PANCOAST, Solomon Fabricant PROM, David ROBBINS, Walter ROSENBLUM, Edwin ROSSKAM, Arthur ROTHSTEIN, Rae RUSSEL, Edward SCHWARTZ, Joe SCHWARTZ, Ann Zane SHANKS, Lee SIEVAN, Larry SILVER, Aaron SISKIND, W. Eugene SMITH, Fred STEIN, Ralph STEINER, Louis STETTNER, Erika STONE, Lou STUEMEN, Paul STRAND, Rolf TIETGENS, Elizabeth TIMBERMAN, David VESTAL, John VACHON, WEEGEE, Dan WEINER, Sandra WEINER, Bill WITT, Ida WYMAN, Max YAVNO, George S. ZIMBEL