N. Jay Jaffee
American, 1921-1999
Born 1921, Brownsville, Brooklyn
Died 1999
The son of Russian immigrants, Jaffee lived on his own from the age of fifteen. He supported himself as a typesetter during the Depression. At twenty-one he was drafted into the army, earning a Bronze Star for valor during World War II. Upon his return to New York he took a class with Sid Grossman at a union hall (1948) and subsequently attended classes and lectures at the Photo League. He photographed the streets of Brooklyn and lower Manhattan and learned to make contact prints on the advice of Paul Strand. His work was exhibited with that of other members of the League at the Museum of Modern Art in 1950. After the Photo League disbanded, Jaffee taught at the East New York Young Men's Hebrew Association Adult Education Program in Brooklyn (1954–56) and privately through the E-2 Group (founded 1972). N. Jay Jaffee: Photography 1947-1956 was published in 1976. In 1981 he was the subject of a major retrospective, "Inward Image: Photographs by N. Jay Jaffee," at the Brooklyn Museum. In 1985 Jaffee moved to Lloyd Harbor, Long Island, where he took up nature photography. In 1999 the Heckscher Museum, Long Island, New York, mounted a retrospective, shortly after his death.
Died 1999
The son of Russian immigrants, Jaffee lived on his own from the age of fifteen. He supported himself as a typesetter during the Depression. At twenty-one he was drafted into the army, earning a Bronze Star for valor during World War II. Upon his return to New York he took a class with Sid Grossman at a union hall (1948) and subsequently attended classes and lectures at the Photo League. He photographed the streets of Brooklyn and lower Manhattan and learned to make contact prints on the advice of Paul Strand. His work was exhibited with that of other members of the League at the Museum of Modern Art in 1950. After the Photo League disbanded, Jaffee taught at the East New York Young Men's Hebrew Association Adult Education Program in Brooklyn (1954–56) and privately through the E-2 Group (founded 1972). N. Jay Jaffee: Photography 1947-1956 was published in 1976. In 1981 he was the subject of a major retrospective, "Inward Image: Photographs by N. Jay Jaffee," at the Brooklyn Museum. In 1985 Jaffee moved to Lloyd Harbor, Long Island, where he took up nature photography. In 1999 the Heckscher Museum, Long Island, New York, mounted a retrospective, shortly after his death.
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