EVA RUBINSTEIN
American
Born August 18, 1933 in Buenos Aires, Argentina to
Polish parents—ballet dancer Aniela Mlynarska and
renowned pianist Arthur Rubenstein—Eva Ru-
binstein traveled constantly throughout her child-
hood, often living in Paris, where she continues to
reside today. Following the outbreak of World War
II, Rubinstein’s family emigrated to the United
States where they settled in New York City. Here,
Rubinstein’s early years of ballet and theater training
with acclaimed teacher Mathilde Kszesinska were
put to good use, as she eventually came to earn a
living as a ballet dancer and actress, most notably
starring inThe Diary of Anne Frankon Broadway.
In 1956, Rubenstein married William Sloane Coffin,
Jr., with whom she had three children: Amy, Alex-
ander, and David. After their 1968 divorce, and
following brief studies with Lisette Model, Diane
Arbus, and photojournalist and anthropological
photographer Ken Heyman, Rubinstein began her
career as a freelance photographer.
Photographing exclusively in black and white,
Rubinstein’s initial images were photojournalistic
or documentary in nature, as she worked as a pho-
tojournalist with works published inLife,Look,and
The New York Times. But her images soon became
far more personal, depicting nudes, especially the
male nude, and interiors, and describing an emo-
tional and evocative style that soon became the
artist’s signature. Often referred to as ‘‘more emo-
tional than cerebral,’’ Rubinstein’s work reflects the
artist’s long-held philosophy that a photographer’s
personal work is—consciously or not—always an
expression of her mind.
Rubinstein is well known for viewing photogra-
phy as interpretation—the means by which we make
things our own, the way each of us puts our ‘‘stamp’’
on our personalized way of seeing. In fact, all of
Rubinstein’s work could be characterized as being
intensely personal, which is due to the fact that the
artist admittedly relied quite heavily on the partici-
pation of her human subjects and on the interaction
between her subject and herself. The photographer’s
connection with many of her subjects was so com-
plete that she remarked that she sometimes ‘‘became
the other,’’ often viewing the camera as an obstacle
and wishing that it would disappear, leaving her to
take photographs with her body. Perceiving the cam-
era’sviewfinderasa‘‘glasswall’’—asiteofdiscon-
nection standing between the photographer and
reality—Rubenstein had a tendency to put the feel-
ings of her subject before her own need to capture
the moment.
This extremely romantic approach, in which
Rubinstein attempted to eliminate any disconnection
between her subjects and herself, lies in stark con-
trast to many of her contemporaries (such as Frank
Horvat or Diane Arbus) who encouraged a more
classical approach in their own work. Rubinstein’s
vehement disagreement with the artistic philosophy
of Diane Arbus in particular was apparent when she
stated, succinctly, ‘‘People are not for catching!’’ As
evidence of the fact that she did not believe in using
the camera as a tool of power or aggression, Rubin-
stein states that she would often avoid taking a
photograph of unsuspecting subjects if she felt that
a particular moment would be destroyed by her
camera’s intrusion, feeling the ‘‘opportunity’’ was
akin to stealing.
Rubinstein’s intensely emotional approach to
photography has been appreciated by many
major museums which have collected her work,
including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and
the International Center of Photography (both in
New York), and she achieved critical acclaim early
in her career primarily due to photographs taken
in Ireland between 1969 and 1972 and also for her
portraits of celebrities. Perhaps the artist’s most
fulfilling moment—personally and profession-
ally—was her visit to Lodz in the early 1980s,
just after marshal law had lifted in Poland. Rubin-
stein fell immediately in love with Lodz, the birth-
place of her father, and worked closely with the
Lodz City Historical Museum to document this
dramatic period in Poland’s history in photo-
graphs. Following a career which featured 92
solo exhibitions and 95 group exhibitions interna-
tionally, Rubinstein lives in Paris and teaches
photography workshops throughout the United
States and Europe.
BrandiIryshe
Seealso:Nude Photography; PortraitureRUBINSTEIN, EVA