Elizabeth Timberman
American, 1908-1988
Born 1908, Columbus, Ohio
Died 1988
A student at the Colorado School of Fine Arts in the late 1930s and a graduate of Oberlin College, Timberman also studied theater at the Cleveland Playhouse. She began her career as a professional actress (1933–39) before turning from the performing to the visual arts. She then studied with George Grosz at the Art Students League (1939–40), with Berenice Abbott at the New School for Social Research (1941), and later with Paul Strand. An active member of the Photo League, Timberman took a course on photojournalism (1941) and organized social activities and fundraising events from 1942 on. In 1942 she became a civilian photographer for the United States Army at Camp Carson, Colorado, and from 1943 to 1946 she photographed for Life magazine. Her work also appeared in numerous other periodicals, including Look, Fortune, The Saturday Evening Post, Popular Photography, and the New York Times Magazine. Timberman, actively concerned in labor issues, was the only photographer to cover a major strike of coal miners in West Virginia in 1950. After the demise of the Photo League in 1951, she moved for a time to Mexico (as did a number of American leftist artists and writers); there, she became chief photographer for the Papaloapan River Project, a government-sponsored initiative to reclaim land for agriculture (1952–53), and still photographer for a film.
Died 1988
A student at the Colorado School of Fine Arts in the late 1930s and a graduate of Oberlin College, Timberman also studied theater at the Cleveland Playhouse. She began her career as a professional actress (1933–39) before turning from the performing to the visual arts. She then studied with George Grosz at the Art Students League (1939–40), with Berenice Abbott at the New School for Social Research (1941), and later with Paul Strand. An active member of the Photo League, Timberman took a course on photojournalism (1941) and organized social activities and fundraising events from 1942 on. In 1942 she became a civilian photographer for the United States Army at Camp Carson, Colorado, and from 1943 to 1946 she photographed for Life magazine. Her work also appeared in numerous other periodicals, including Look, Fortune, The Saturday Evening Post, Popular Photography, and the New York Times Magazine. Timberman, actively concerned in labor issues, was the only photographer to cover a major strike of coal miners in West Virginia in 1950. After the demise of the Photo League in 1951, she moved for a time to Mexico (as did a number of American leftist artists and writers); there, she became chief photographer for the Papaloapan River Project, a government-sponsored initiative to reclaim land for agriculture (1952–53), and still photographer for a film.
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