Ruth Orkin
American, 1921-1985
Born 1921, Boston, Massachusetts
Died 1985
Orkin grew up in Hollywood, where her mother was a silent-film actor. She took photographs as a child and studied photojournalism for a year at Los Angeles City College (1939). During World War II she served briefly in the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps before moving to New York (1943). There, she worked as a nightclub photographer before building a successful career as a freelancer for Life, Look, Ladies' Home Journal, and other periodicals. She frequently attended lectures and symposia at the Photo League, but it was only after the organization was blacklisted that she officially joined, in an act of solidarity (1947), participating in the exhibition "This Is the Photo League" (1948–49). Orkin also worked in filmmaking, completing two independent feature films—Little Fugitive (1952) and Lovers and Lollipops (1955)—with her husband and fellow Photo League member Morris Engel. She taught photography at the School of Visual Arts, New York (1976–78) and at the International Center of Photography (1979), which later mounted a major posthumous retrospective of her work (1995).
Other exhibitions in which she participated include the groundbreaking "Breadth of Vision: Portfolios of Women Photographers" at the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York (1975) and "The Women of the Photo League" at Higher Pictures Gallery, New York (2009).
Died 1985
Orkin grew up in Hollywood, where her mother was a silent-film actor. She took photographs as a child and studied photojournalism for a year at Los Angeles City College (1939). During World War II she served briefly in the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps before moving to New York (1943). There, she worked as a nightclub photographer before building a successful career as a freelancer for Life, Look, Ladies' Home Journal, and other periodicals. She frequently attended lectures and symposia at the Photo League, but it was only after the organization was blacklisted that she officially joined, in an act of solidarity (1947), participating in the exhibition "This Is the Photo League" (1948–49). Orkin also worked in filmmaking, completing two independent feature films—Little Fugitive (1952) and Lovers and Lollipops (1955)—with her husband and fellow Photo League member Morris Engel. She taught photography at the School of Visual Arts, New York (1976–78) and at the International Center of Photography (1979), which later mounted a major posthumous retrospective of her work (1995).
Other exhibitions in which she participated include the groundbreaking "Breadth of Vision: Portfolios of Women Photographers" at the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York (1975) and "The Women of the Photo League" at Higher Pictures Gallery, New York (2009).
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