Edward Schwartz
American, 1906-2005
Born 1906, Brooklyn, New York
Died 2005
The son of Russian Jewish immigrants, Schwartz grew up in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. He graduated from Hebrew Technical Institute in 1922 and then attended City College at night while working factory jobs as an engineer during the day. Schwartz joined the Photo League in 1938 and began taking street pictures of New York's immigrant neighborhoods. During World War II he served in the Navy as a SeaBee and continued to take photographs while stationed in Okinawa, Japan. After the war he worked as an assistant for Berenice Abbott. In 1948 or 1949 he completed Around New York, a documentary film about daily life on the Lower East Side. In 1949 Angela Calomiris testified that Schwartz was the section organizer of the Photographic Group of the Cultural Section of the American Communist Party. Schwartz continued to work in the construction industry while photographing in his spare time. His work is in the collections of the Peace Memorial Resource Center, Okinawa; the New York Public Library; and the Tenement Museum, New York City, as well as the Columbus Museum of Art.
Died 2005
The son of Russian Jewish immigrants, Schwartz grew up in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. He graduated from Hebrew Technical Institute in 1922 and then attended City College at night while working factory jobs as an engineer during the day. Schwartz joined the Photo League in 1938 and began taking street pictures of New York's immigrant neighborhoods. During World War II he served in the Navy as a SeaBee and continued to take photographs while stationed in Okinawa, Japan. After the war he worked as an assistant for Berenice Abbott. In 1948 or 1949 he completed Around New York, a documentary film about daily life on the Lower East Side. In 1949 Angela Calomiris testified that Schwartz was the section organizer of the Photographic Group of the Cultural Section of the American Communist Party. Schwartz continued to work in the construction industry while photographing in his spare time. His work is in the collections of the Peace Memorial Resource Center, Okinawa; the New York Public Library; and the Tenement Museum, New York City, as well as the Columbus Museum of Art.
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