JEROME LIEBLING'S PHOTOGRAPHS
OF NEW YORK, 1947-1997
AT THE MISHKIN GALLERY
MAY 8 - JUNE 4

Half a Century of "Ordinary" People

Though his images have ranged across America from Minnesota to Massachusetts to Montana, Jerome Liebling's urban vignettes of New York City and its citizens constitute a distinct, highly expressive body of work. More than fifty of these photographs can be seen in Jerome Liebling:
Photographs of New York City, 1947-1997, on view at Baruch College's Mishkin Gallery, from May 8 - June 4, 1998. The exhibition is curated by Mishkin Gallery director Sandra Kraskin. Opening Reception, Thursday, May 7, 5-7 pm.

Liebling, an admired and influential photographer and filmmaker, has always affirmed "everyday people" as being central to his photography. His work, along with other members of the renowned Photo League, helped raise the documentary photograph to the level of fine art. Set against the changing terrain of the city, from the 1940s, when Liebling shot his earliest photos, to the 1970s and '80s, when his camera studied the ruined landscapes of the South Bronx and the vitality of the Russian immigrant community in Brighton Beach, the photographs depict the tenacity and vibrant individuality of his "ordinary" subjects.

Liebling's people range from street corner urchins to elderly women bedecked in furs and jewelry. His subjects play handball in Brooklyn, march in a May Day Parade in Union Square, Liebling, work in a New York meat market. They encompass the full range of age, gesture and circumstance. No matter their situation, Liebling's subjects reflect his abiding sense of their dignity and humanity. The documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, one of many students whom Liebling influenced, has commented on how Liebling taught him and others "to respect the power of the single image to communicate." Liebling's photos do communicate, and even when he's looking at a street filled with rubble and devoid of people, humanity is never far removed.

Liebling's early New York pictures are documentary studies in black and white. He photographed them in the 1940s, when he was a student at Brooklyn College and a member of the Photo League. Following two decades in the Midwest, Liebling returned to New York, documenting--first in black and white and later in color--the dramatic transformations of the city. Together the early and late group show us much of New York's declining neighborhoods and its durable people.

The Mishkin Gallery is located at 135 East 22nd Street (at Lexington Avenue).
Gallery hours are: Monday-Friday 12 noon - 5 pm;
Thursday 12 noon - 7 pm.
All Mishkin Gallery shows are free and open to the public.

Baruch College
17 Lexington Avenue
Box D-0901
New York, NY
1 001 0

© 1998 Sidney Mishkin Gallery, Baruch College

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