Lou Stoumen
American, 1917-1991
Born 1917, Springtown, Pennsylvania
Died 1991
While still in college at Lehigh University, Louis Clyde Stoumen had his first photography exhibition there, in 1938. In 1939 he began to experiment with combining his photographs with writing in what he called "paper movies." He moved to New York and began to work as a freelance journalist. That year he was the first student to join the Photo League on a Dorothea Lange scholarship. At the League, Stoumen worked closely with Sid Grossman, edited for Photo Notes (1940–41), and produced the photographic series for which he is best known, on Times Square (1940). In 1941 Stoumen made his first film, Tropico, a documentary about children in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, while working in Puerto Rico as a staff photographer for the National Youth Administration (NYA). He enlisted in the army and, while stationed in the Caribbean in 1942, became director of the NYA's photographic division. In 1944 he was a combat photographer in Southeast Asia; the Photo League mounted an exhibition of the work he made while in the army.
After his return to the United States, Stoumen participated in two group exhibitions with other League members at the Museum of Modern Art in 1948. In the late 1940s he moved to California, where he directed three documentaries, two of which won Academy Awards: The True Story of the Civil War (1956) and Black Fox: The Rise and Fall of Adolf Hitler (1962). He was professor of motion pictures and television at the University of California, Los Angeles, from 1966 to 1988. He resumed making photographs in 1975, often with UCLA students as his subjects. He published Can't Argue with Sunrise: A Paper Movie (1975) and Times Square: Forty Years of Photography (1985). In 1981 the Allentown Art Museum in Pennsylvania mounted a retrospective of his work, co-publishing Ordinary Miracles: The Photographs of Lou Stoumen (1981; with the Frederick S. Wight Art Gallery and the International Center of Photography, New York) on that occasion.
Died 1991
While still in college at Lehigh University, Louis Clyde Stoumen had his first photography exhibition there, in 1938. In 1939 he began to experiment with combining his photographs with writing in what he called "paper movies." He moved to New York and began to work as a freelance journalist. That year he was the first student to join the Photo League on a Dorothea Lange scholarship. At the League, Stoumen worked closely with Sid Grossman, edited for Photo Notes (1940–41), and produced the photographic series for which he is best known, on Times Square (1940). In 1941 Stoumen made his first film, Tropico, a documentary about children in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, while working in Puerto Rico as a staff photographer for the National Youth Administration (NYA). He enlisted in the army and, while stationed in the Caribbean in 1942, became director of the NYA's photographic division. In 1944 he was a combat photographer in Southeast Asia; the Photo League mounted an exhibition of the work he made while in the army.
After his return to the United States, Stoumen participated in two group exhibitions with other League members at the Museum of Modern Art in 1948. In the late 1940s he moved to California, where he directed three documentaries, two of which won Academy Awards: The True Story of the Civil War (1956) and Black Fox: The Rise and Fall of Adolf Hitler (1962). He was professor of motion pictures and television at the University of California, Los Angeles, from 1966 to 1988. He resumed making photographs in 1975, often with UCLA students as his subjects. He published Can't Argue with Sunrise: A Paper Movie (1975) and Times Square: Forty Years of Photography (1985). In 1981 the Allentown Art Museum in Pennsylvania mounted a retrospective of his work, co-publishing Ordinary Miracles: The Photographs of Lou Stoumen (1981; with the Frederick S. Wight Art Gallery and the International Center of Photography, New York) on that occasion.
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