Category Archives: Photographers

Walter Rosenblum

A man of the highest caliber.

Go to the web site of Walter Rosenblum and you will find this description in his bio:

“Walter Rosenblum has been a photographer for fifty years, as well as an important figure in the advancement of twentieth century photography. His early involvement with photography began when he was seventeen years old, when he joined the Photo League where he met Lewis Hine and studied with Paul Strand.

As a World War II U.S. Army combat photographer, Rosenblum landed in Normandy on D-Day morning. There, he joined the anti-tank battalion that drove through France, Germany and Austria; he took the first motion picture footage of the Dachau concentration camp. Rosenblum was one of the most decorated WWII photographers, receiving the Silver Star, Bronze Star, five battle stars, a Purple Heart and a Presidential Unit Citation. The Simon Weisenthal Center has honored him as a liberator of Dachau in WWII.”


Rosenblum’s street photography, frequently dealing with the poor, is exceptionally sensitive and introspective. As the son of immigrant parents brought up in a cold water apartment in the slums of the lower East side, it’s little wonder that he had empathy with the poor people whome he portrayed. The words ‘classical pictorial photojournalism’ come to mind as an apt description of his Å“uvre.

His book is available from Amazon – click the image below to go there:


Click for Amazon.

The images are well printed, with satisfying richness. The book includes a fine history of social conscience photography from Jacob Riis and Lewis Hine through the FSA and Rosenblum, written by the photographer’s wife, Naomi Rosenblum.

Recommended for all fans of quality street photojournalism.

While the book is out of print, used copies remain available. My mint copy cost $50.

For more in this genre see also the work of Helen Levitt.

Henry Clarke

A master of style and class.

Seldom mentioned in a pantheon which includes such luminaries as Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, John Rawlings, Clifford Coffin, Cecil Beaton and Norman Parkinson, there’s a strong argument to be made that Henry Clarke was the master of them all when it came to sheer elegance in fashion photography around the middle of the last century.


Click the image for the Daily Mail article.

The Daily Mail recently ran an article on the iconic Vogue photographers and had the great good sense to include several of Clarke’s images, which you can see by clicking the picture. Scroll down and compare Clarke’s refined approach with the crass vulgarity of David Bailey. Of course, the New Look Dior dresses of Clarke’s time remain unsurpassed.

Robert Doisneau – Les Halles

All gone.

Robert Doisneau (1912-1994) (pronounced “Dwaano”) is the quintessential Parisian photographer. Where Cartier-Bresson emphasizes composition and the man in the landscape, Doisneau focuses almost exclusively on the people themselves. Doisneau’s intimacy is counterpoint to HC-B’s detachment. Both approaches work in the hands of these masters, but Doisneau’s is uniquely suited to the documentation of Les Halles, the produce market in central Paris which he photographed from 1933 through its demolition in 1971.

As Covent Garden in London and the Fulton Street Fish Market in New York were destroyed to make room for condos and stores that can be found in any other metropolis, so was Les Halles, with its exquisite cast iron frame designed by Baltard, consigned to the scrap heap. Doisneau’s record is priceless and irreplaceable.


Scalding Room, 1968.

The book contains over 120 images with an interesting prologue documenting the long history of Les Halles, and is highly recommended for all who love warm, involved candid photography. Very much a man of the people, Doisneau was clearly welcomed and loved by the people of Les Halles. There is nothing clandestine here as Doisneau was simply not that kind of phorographer.

Click the image to go to Amazon – I derive no benefit if you do that.

Bruno Barbey

Magnum photographer.

Bruno Barbey’s book ‘The Italians’ is a warm 1960s memento made up of his street images taken in Rome, Naples, Milan and Genoa. Though printed a little too dark for my taste, the images are those of a photographer who believes in getting in close to his subjects, invariably depicted with warmth and dignity. Barbey is a Frenchhman born in Morocco in 1941.


1964 – Piazza di Spagna, Rome.
Click the image for Amazon. I do not get paid if you do that.