Aaron Siskind

1903 - 1991

He was born to immigrant Russian Jews on Dec. 4, 1903 - 5th out of six children, and lived half his life in New •York. As a child was always on the street, exploring. At thirteen, he used to listen to people talk about politics, then give public speeches about peace and on anti-war.

HENRY HORENSTEIN, Professor, Rhode Island School Of Design, said this about Siskind:•

Aaron was warm, smart, articulate, funny, and opinionated. It was obvious that he loved teaching and he loved his students, treating us much like his own children. However, I already had a father with a lot of opinions about what I should and shouldn’t do, which made Aaron’s style of teaching difficult for me. I am sorry I couldn’t get closer to him as a lot of his other students did. When I began teaching at RISD in the early 1980s, Aaron invited me to bring my class to his home in Pawtucket, RI. There, he would regale us with his stories and wisdom. It was at these very special classes that I really got to appreciate Aaron’s great generosity and spirit.

He began his photography career as a documentary photographer in the New York Photo League in 1932. From •1936 to 1940 he oversaw the League’s Feature Group as they created documentary photo-essays of political import including Harlem Document, Dead End: The Bowery, Portrait of a Tenement, and St. Joseph’s House: The Catholic Worker Movement The group was a place to meet other photographers and learn techniques. Frustrated with the group’s strict politics, Siskind quit in 1935, but rejoined the following year to become head of group. But Siskind slowly edged away from strict documentary.

Hisfirstlovesweremusicandpoetry,buthetookaninterestinphotographyin1930(whenhereceivedhis•firstcameraasagoing-awaypresentbeforehishoneymoontriptoBermuda).ThiswasaquotefromSiskind:

I was given a small camera as a wedding gift from a very dear friend. My first pictures were taken on my honeymoon. As soon as I became familiar with the camera, I was intrigued with the possibilities of expression it offered. It was like a discovery for me.

While studying social science at City College of New York, he joined a literary group whose members included •Adolph Gottlieb and Barnett Newman, who would both become painters and would play key roles in Siskind’s developmentasanartist.Soonafterhegraduatedin1926,hebeganteachingEnglishtofifth-to-ninth-gradersintheNewYorkpublicschoolsystem.In1929heMarriedSidonie(Sonia)Glatter(annulled1945).

Harlem 1937

Harlem 1937

1940

St. Josephs House

Seaweed1953/1970s

In the early 40’s, however, Mr. Siskind’s work grew increasingly spare and abstract, and by 1950 •he had completely departed from his earlier documentary style.

Siskind’s work gradually shifted from a social documentary approach to a more abstract and •personal style.

“For the first time in my life subject matter, as such, had ceased to be of primary importance,” • Siskind explained. “Instead I found myself involved in the relationships of these objects, so much so that the pictures turned out to be deeply moving and personal experiences.”

Two Small Barn Doors Date?

He was an Abstract Expressionist, but instead of using a paintbrush he used a camera. Franz Kline wasaclosefriend.WilhelmDeKooningcitesSiskindasasignificantinfluence.LikeAnselAdamsSis-kind’s photographs are very precise. Unlike Adams, Siskind seemed to be more concerned with the concept of pure space rather than any individual subject.

Untitled (Hand and broken glass) 1940s

The tendency to separate • Siskind’s abstract work from his straightforward documentary work is understandable -- we achieve clarity through categories. But the two periods, or styles, are really the same: Siskind was always gripped by the enduring concerns of landscape and figure even as he chose to see this wide, strange world of ours through the smaller, detailed lens of abstraction. (CharlesA.HartmanFineArt,134N.W.EighthAve.,503-287-3886)

Critic Eby Lloyd called him • “the father of modern photography. His work, more than that of any single photographer, has freed photography from its concerns with simple representation, documentation, or portraiture, and has taken it to the realm of poetic signification. In Siskind’s hands, photography attained its potential as a full abstract and expressionist art.”

Jerome 20 1949Gelatin silver print, 1957

The best photos are like Gloucester •3 and Jerome 20 where your eyes just wander across and explore this beautiful surface.

By exploring the surfaces of the things •that Siskind found tearing away from walls or from detritus in the street is important because he found a language that paralleled the line of thought that was being developed by the Abstract Expressionist painters: Jackson Pollock, Willem De Kooning, and Franz Kline.

Jalapa 66, from Homage to Frantz Kline

Chicago 27 1960

Pleasures & Terrorsof Levitation

(series1953-1961)

Rome 1963

Mexico 32 1982

Bahia 170 1984

The Road(series-early1990s)

Siskind in his darkroom in Providence, RI

If you lookvery intensely and slowly, things will happen that you never dreamed of before.

The Photographer: Aaron Siskind, 2004 Richard Merkin