Aaron Siskind Church Interior 1938

  • MoMA, Floor 5, 510 The David Geffen Wing

From 1937 to 1944, Siskind took pictures in and around Harlem—of its businesses, domestic interiors, religious and social organizations, and nightlife. He did so as a member of the New York Photo League—a documentary photography collective with roots in radical leftist politics—and in collaboration with journalist and sociologist Michael Carter and other photographers as part of a cultural study of Harlem. In 1981 fifty-two of Siskind’s images were published in the book Harlem Document: Photographs 1932–1940 alongside first-person interviews conducted in the late 1930s by writers employed by the Federal Writers Project, including novelist and essayist Ralph Ellison.

Gallery label from 2024
Medium
Gelatin silver print, printed 1980
Dimensions
8 5/8 × 12" (22 × 30.7 cm)
Credit
Gift of Sophie Black
Object number
120.1985.26
Copyright
© 2024 Estate of Aaron Siskind
Department
Photography
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