umentary expression. Whether focusing on beach
scenes at Coney Island, street festivals in Little Italy,
or the cultural life of Harlem or Central America,
Grossman sought vibrant images displaying a con-
cern for humanity’s struggles to survive and endure.
Grossman’s life and work also perfectly exemplify
the difficulties encountered by politically engaged
documentary photographers from the Depression
to the cold war years. During his travels to the mid-
west (Oklahoma, Missouri, and Arkansas) in 1940,
Grossman photographed folksingers, farmers, and
union activists, creating clear, unaffected, ‘‘straight’’
black-and-white images of the people he met. He also
attracted the attention of the FBI, which apparently
initiated surveillance of the League because of Gross-
man’s associations with known Communists during
this trip. By 1945, when Grossman worked in photo
labs for the US Army Air Corps in Central America,
he was investigated by the Army Intelligence Bureau
because of alleged Communist activities.
Then, in December 1947, Photo League members
were surprised to find the organization publicly
blacklisted by the US Attorney General in a list of
‘‘totalitarian, fascist, communist and subversive
organizations.’’ Membership soared as photogra-
phers joined in support and defense of the League.
But in 1949, during Angela Calomiris’s testimony
against Communist leaders at the Foley Square
Trials, she suggested that The Photo League was a
subversive organization and specifically named
Grossman as the man who introduced her to the
Communist Party. As an informant for the FBI,
Calomiris worked at the League (and other groups),
gathering incriminating information for the federal
government. She also distrusted documentary
photographers’ penchant for images of social injus-
tice; this propagandistic ‘‘Red slant,’’ as she called
it, reinforced anti-American ideals.
Ironically, as Grossman entered his most produc-
tive, successful, and experimental years (working
concurrently on five series, Folksingers, Coney
Island, New York Recent, Mulberry Street, and
Legion, 1946–1948), he faced staggering difficulties.
After the listing and naming, Grossman’s career
disintegrated; from 1949, when he quit the League,
until his death in 1955, he earned (according to his
widow Miriam Cohen) just one commercial assign-
ment. Such accusations kept him, as well as others
in the League, from being hired for freelance jobs.
With membership dwindling in the wake of federal
investigations, The Photo League folded in 1951.
As tastes changed and pressures mounted, many
photographers turned away from social realism
and sought more subjective, interior realms. While
images visualizing the downtrodden may have been
celebrated during the Depression, in prosperous
post-war America some viewed the same content
and concern with suspicion. Grossman, too, started
investigating new subjects and styles. During the
last years of his life (1949–1955), Grossman photo-
graphed in Provincetown, Massachusetts, where he
and his family spent their summers in retreat. He
taught private classes, studied with Abstract
Expressionist Hans Hofmann, and expanded his
photographic vocabulary yet again. His work (as
seen inJourney to the Cape, 1959) radically shifted,
including more formally engaged abstractions and
non-documentary subjects. They testify not only to
Grossman’s stylistic diversity but also to the effects
of repressive cold war politics on art.
LiliBezner
Seealso:Documentary Photography; Farm Security
Administration; Hine, Lewis; History of Photogra-
phy: Postwar Era; Photo League; Works Progress
AdministrationBiography
Born Sidney Grossman in New York City to Morris and
Ethel Glickstein Grossman, 15 June, 1913. Attended
City College of New York, ca. 1932–1935; studied
painting with Hans Hofmann, Provincetown, ca.
1949–1953; art classes, New School for Social Research,- Joined Film and Photo League, ca. 1934–1935;
founding member, The Photo League, 1936; resigned, - Teacher and Director, Photo League school,
1938–1949 (also taught classes at Henry Street Settle-
ment, Harlem Art Center, his own Provincetown
School of Photography, and his own New York apart-
ment). Worked in Central American photo labs for
Public Relations Section, US Army Air Corps, 1945–
1946 (Cantina, Black Christ, Ballet Russeseries).Folk
Singers, Coney Island, Foreign Legion, Recent New
York, Mulberry Streetseries, 1946–1948. New York
City Ballet series, ca. 1951–1955. Married Marion
Hille, 1941 (divorced ca. 1949); married Miriam Echel-
man, 1949; son Adam born 1954. Died of heart disease,
31 December, 1955.
Individual Exhibitions
1961 Sid Grossman: Parts I and II(two retrospectives),
Image Gallery, New York
1981 Sidney Grossman: Photographs 1936–1955, Museum of
Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
1987 Sid Grossman: A Retrospective, Howard Greenberg
Gallery/Photofind, New York, New York
1994 Sid Grossman Vintage Photographs 1936–1955,
Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York, New YorkSelected Group Exhibitions
1939 Pictorial Photographers of America, Museum of Nat-
ural History; New York, New YorkGROSSMAN, SID