The New Rochelle Council on the Arts is hosting an exhibit of the works of Arthur Rothstein, a leading documentary photographer, who lived in New Rochelle for many years. The exhibit is housed in the Rotunda Gallery at New Rochelle City Hall and runs from September 12, 2012 to October 26, 2012.
Celebrating American Workers Surviving The Great Depression presents a nationwide portrait of workers and the dispossessed, captured in photographs for the U.S. Farm Security Administration.
Rothstein’s photos are among the most iconic American photographs ever taken. In his work for the Farm Security Administration, Rothstein “shot some of the most significant photographs ever taken of rural and small-town America”.
Among them is one of the most famous photos ever taken — a farmer and his two sons during a dust storm in Cimarron County, Oklahoma, 1936 (above)
At a reception last night, Grace Rothstein, Arthur’s widow, attended along with three of their four children who were pleased to talk about their father with guests.
One the family’s favorite photos is a group of Cowboy’s gathered around a camp fire (below, top).
Another photo (below, left), a cowhand on the William Tonn Ranch in Custer County, MT, inspired The Marlboro Man cowboy image that was used in a tobacco advertising campaign for Marlboro cigarettes which began in 1954.
Rothstein’s photos are displayed on the web at Library of Congress – American Memory Homepage and the Arthur Rothstein Archive
Mr. Rothstein’s photographs are in permanent collections throughout the world and have appeared in numerous exhibitions. A selection of this one-man shows include shows at the International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House, Rochester NY the Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC; Photokina, Cologne, Germany; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Royal Photographic Society, London, England, as well as traveling exhibitions for the United States Information Service and for Parade magazine.
He was a member of the faculty of the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University and a Spencer Chair Professor at SI Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University. Mr. Rothstein was also on the faculties of Mercy College, Dobbs Ferry, NY, and the Parsons School of Design in New York City and he took great pride in mentoring young photographers including Stanley Kubrick, Douglas Kirkland and Chester Higgins, Jr.
A recipient of more than 35 awards in photojournalism and a former juror for the Pulitzer Prize, Mr. Rothstein was also a founder and former officer of the American Society of Magazine Photographers (ASMP). Arthur Rothstein Died on November 11, 1985 in New Rochelle, New York.