him to publish a key text on photojournalism and
color photography manuals before his death in
- Today, photographs by Rothstein can be
found in over 90 institutions, most comprehensively
in the International Museum of Photography and
Film at George Eastman House, the Museum of
Modern Art in New York, the Rothstein Collection
in the Library of Congress, London’s Royal Photo-
graphic Society, and the Smithsonian Institution.
KatherineBussardSeealso:Ethics and Photography; Evans, Walker;
Farm Security Administration; Lange, Dorothea;
Lee, Russell; Look; Office of War Information
Social Representation; Shahn, Ben; Stryker, Roy
Biography
Born in New York, New York, July 17, 1915. Attended
Columbia University, majored in Physics and Chemis-
try, founded the University Camera Club; B.A., 1935.
Became the first photographer of the Resettlement
Administration; worked for the FSA 1935–1940; joined
Lookmagazine as a staff photographer, 1940; photo-
graphed for Office of War Information in New York,
1941–1943; photo officer with U.S. Army Corps in
China, Burma, and India, 1943–1946; Director of Photo-
graphy atLook, 1946–1971; founding member, Ameri-
can Society of Magazine Photographers and editor of
ASMP’sInfinitymagazine, 1971–1972; joinedParade
magazine as Associate Editor, 1972; Director of Photo-
graphy atParade, 1978–1981; Associate Editor atPar-
ade, 1981–1985. Member of faculty, Graduate School of
Journalism at Columbia University; Spencer Chair Pro-
fessor, S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communication,
Syracuse University; member of faculty, Mercy College,
Dobb’s Ferry, New York; member of faculty, Parsons
School of Design, New York, New York. Recipient of
the National Press Photographers Association Award,
- Named a Fellow of the Royal Photographic
Society of Great Britain, 1968, and a Fellow of the
Photographic Historical Society of New York, 1979.
Received over 50 awards in photojournalism and served
on Pulitzer Prize Jury. Died in New Rochelle, New
York, November 11, 1985.
Individual Exhibitions
1956 Arthur Rothstein; George Eastman House; Rochester,
New York
1960 Biblioteca Commnale; Milan, Italy
1963 Smithsonian Institution; Washington, D.C.
1966 Photokina; Cologne, West Germany
1967 Look At Us;KodakExhibitCenter;NewYork,NewYork
1974 United States Information Service; traveling exhibi-
tion sent to 60 countries
1976 My Land, My People; International Museum of Photo-
graphy; Rochester, New York
1978 Prakapas Gallery; New York, New York
1979 Empire State Plaza; Albany, New York
Fine Arts Museum of the South; Mobile, Alabama
1980 Rizzoli Gallery; New York, New York
1991 Arthur Rothstein’s America; International Center of
Photography, New York, New York
1994 Arthur Rothstein: Documentary Classics; International
Center of Photography, New York, New YorkSelected Group Exhibitions
1937 Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
1939 A Pageant of Photography; Golden Gate International
Exposition, Palace of Fine Arts; San Francisco, California
1940 International Exhibition of Modern Art; Paris, France
1942 Road to Victory: A Procession of Photographs of the Nation
at War;MuseumofModernArt;NewYork,NewYork
1949 The Exact Instant: 100 Years of News Photography;
Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York
1952 Then and Now; Museum of Modern Art; New York,
New York
1957 Seventy Photographers Look at New York; Museum of
Modern Art; New York, New York
1959 Photography in the Fine Arts: An Exhibition of Great
Contemporary Photographs; Metropolitan Museum of
Art; New York, New York
1960 Photography in the Fine Arts, Exhibit II; Metropolitan
Museum of Art; New York, New York
1962 The Bitter Years, 1935–1941; Museum of Modern Art;
New York, New York
1963 Photography in the Fine Arts, Exhibit IV; Metropolitan
Museum of Art; New York, New York
1964 The Photographer’s Eye; Museum of Modern Art;
New York, New York
1965 Photography in the Fine Arts, 1965 World’s Fair Exhi-
bition; New York, New York
Photography in America 1850–1965; Yale University
Art Gallery; New Haven, Connecticut
1967 Photography in the Twentieth Century; National Gal-
lery of Canada; Ottowa, Ontario, Canada
Photography in the Fine Arts, Exhibit V; Metropolitan
Museum of Art; New York, New York
1971 Royal Photographic Society; London, England
The Artist as Adversary; Museum of Modern Art; New
York, New York
1976 Masters of the Camera: Stieglitz, Steichen and Their
Successors; International Center of Photography; New
York, New York
1978 Photo League; International Center of Photography;
New York, New York
1984 Faces Photographed: from the Permanent Collection;
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; San Francisco,
CaliforniaSelected Works
Sharecropper’s Wife, Arkansas, 1935
Dust Storm, Cimarron County, Oklahoma, 1936
Skull, Bad Lands, South Dakota, 1936
Girl at Gee’s Bend, Alabama [Aretelia Bendolph], 1937
Jay Dudeck, Dalton, New York, 1937
Eddie Mitchell, Unemployed Youth, Birmingham, Alabama,
1940
Boy Dying of Famine on Street in Hengyang, China, 1946
Ruins of London, 1947
John Marin in His Studio, Hoboken, New Jersey, 1949ROTHSTEIN, ARTHUR