Milton Rogovin

(Brooklyn, New York, 1909 - 2011, Buffalo, New York)

North America, American

Milton Rogovin was born in New York City in 1909 as the son of Jewish-Lithuanian immigrants; he moved to Buffalo in 1938. He bought his first camera in 1942, the same year he was drafted into the Army. Upon his return after the war, Rogovin organized an optometrist's union in Buffalo and also became librarian of the city's Communist Party. In the 1950s, during the McCarthy administration's Red Scare, Rogovin was blacklisted for his left-leaning activities, and was summoned to testify before court. Although he refused to appear, a local newspaper referred to him as the "top red in Buffalo." After this, he devoted his time almost exclusively to his social documentary photography, documenting individuals and groups that he referred to as ‘the forgotten ones.’ A consummate photojournalist and dedicated activist, Rogovin's lens has illuminated social issues for more than 60 years: globally, the plight of the miner in ten nations; locally, the decline of the steel industry and the struggle of the working people of his home town of Buffalo, New York, among many other focuses.

Rogovin was a recipient of the Cornell Capa Award as part of the 2007 Infinity Awards. His work has been featured in more than 60 solo exhibitions, and he received the W. Eugene Smith Award for Documentary Photography in 1983. His photographs are in the permanent collections of over two dozen prominent museums around the world, including the Biblotheque Nationale in Paris, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles and the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.

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