At last, the Photo League gets a comprehensive study that will be the standard work about a group of creative photographers who captured the vibrancy of New York from 1936 to 1951. Mason Klein and Catherine Evans have edited the perfect survey in words and images. The five illustrated essays run over the first eighty-five pages and cover all you'll need to know about the League and the personalities involved in this liberal photo group.
After the editor's overview, essays look at Aaron Siskind's Harlem Document project, women photographers (Lucy Ashjian, Sonia Meyer, Vivian Cherry and Rae Russel) newspapers and magazines of the period who frequently used the work of League members. The final essay, by Anne Tucker, is a fascinating look at the demise of the League during the late forties. It was included in the Blacklist, about ninety organizations that US attorney general Tom Clark, in late 1947, claimed were subversive. Just before this, the League had its highest membership of 178 but Cold War rhetoric finally closed the group in 1951.
The 150 Plates are quite stunning. One to a page and beautifully printed as 200 screen duotones. There are only three, in my opinion, that doesn't quite work because of soft focus. The majority of the photos show working-class life on the streets. Page after page of wonderful compositions that pull you into the frame. Although the League is closely identified with New York there are a few photos taken elsewhere in the US and abroad.
What I really liked about the book was the mixing of known and less well-known League members. Here's the chance to discover a Jack Manning, Joe Schwartz, Marynn Ausubel, Nancy Bulkeley or Lucy Ashjian for example.
The Radical Camera is a worthy addition to photo books about New York and the liberal humanist group of photographers who all had something to say through their work.
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