[Photographs from the series Harlem Document and Most Crowded Block in the World].

[New York, New York] : Light Gallery, [1980 or 1981]

28 photographs : gelatin silver prints ; sheets 36 x 28 cm

Formerly owned by Tennyson Schad. Purchased from Janet Sirmon Fine Art on the Edwin J. Beinecke Book Fund, 2016.

This material is open for research.

Aaron Siskind (1903-1991) was an American photographer and teacher.

28 black and white prints documenting life in Harlem, New York taken by photographer Aaron Siskind circa 1932-1940. Photographs depict portraits of African American children, men, and women; street scenes; shopkeepers, stores, and street vendors; performers at the Apollo and Lafayette Theaters; domestic interiors; buliding exteriors; people at a church service; and dancers performing at a nightclub. The images were included in two of Siskind's photography series, "Harlem Document" and "The Most Crowded Block in the World". The photographs were printed in 1980 or 1981 by Michaela Allan Murphy under the direction of Aaron Siskind, using negatives held in the collection of the George Eastman Museum, and published and sold by Light Gallery circa 1981. The prints are unsigned by the photographer; each print bears the embossed "L" chop mark of Light Gallery at the lower left. 26 of the 28 prints are annotated on their versos with the location and date of the original image, title, number, and "HD" or "MCB" to designate "Harlem Document" or "Most Crowded Block"; the remaining two prints in the group are annotated only with inventory numbers "RWFA 7136" and "RWFA 7136". Accompanied by a storage box from Light Gallery that has inscriptions about the prints.

English

December 22, 2020

Aaron Siskind, Photographs from the Series Harlem Document and Most Crowded Block in the World. James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection in the Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

Aaron Siskind, Photographs from the Series Harlem Document and Most Crowded Block in the World. James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection in the Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.