Lafayette Theater 1, Harlem, 1937

Lafayette Theater 1, Harlem, 1937

Siskind, Aaron

photographer

1903 - 1991

American

1937 [approximate]; printed 1981

photograph; gelatin silver print

work

gelatin silver print

photographic paper

photography (process); gelatin silver process

35.56 x 27.94 cm (14 x 11 inches)

29.84 x 21.91 cm (11 3/4 x 8 5/8 inches)

2017.012.010

2017.012.010

2017.012.010_Siskind_LR.jpg

Copyright. 1937. Estate of Aaron Siskind

As indicated by the inscription"HD," this photograph is part of a documentary series focusing on the social and economic conditions of Harlem in the 1930s, made as part of a project by the Feature Group, a production unit of photographers from the Photo League. The Feature Group project was intended to produce a book, but was never completed, although some of Siskind's photos (this one excepted) were included in "Harlem Document" (published in 1981). The photo shows the backstage area of the Lafayette Theater in Harlem, NY. The famous theater, the first major theater to desegregate, was a center of Harlem entertainment from 1912 through the 1930s, closing in 1951. Although the photo is dated 1937, Siskind wrote in "Harlem Document" (p. 78) that "[r]ecords kept were incomplete, casual and, alas,.. mostly gone." During the 30s the Lafayette Theater was the New York home of the Works Project Administration, Federal Theatre Project's Negro Theatre Unit (1936-1939). The construction behind the central figure, stenciled with "HAITI," provides a clue to the time when the photograph was taken and the activity in which the central figure is engaged. The Negro Theatre Unit performed two plays with Carribean settings around 1937, the time attributed to the photograph: Shakespeare's "Macbeth," (which became known as the "Voodoo Macbeth") which ran from April 14 to June 30, 1936, set in a Carribean island similar to Haiti, staged and directed by Orson Wells; and William Du Bois' "Haiti, A Drama of the Black Napoleon" (a dramatization of the life of Toussaint Louverture), which ran from March 2 to November 5, 1938. The marking on the set would seem to indicate that the photo was made during the 1938 "Haiti" production. The subject of the photograph is surprising and confusing -- a well-dressed man blowing into a raging fire backstage! Perhaps he is making smoke for the production by blowing into the fire, or he may be stoking the fire to be used in a scene. Although this is part of the "Harlem Document" group of photos taken by Siskind in the 1930s, it was not included in the 1981 book, Harlem Document: Photographs 1932-1940: Aaron Siskind (Banks, Ann, and Charles Traub, eds. Harlem Document: Photographs 1932-1940: Aaron Siskind. Providence: Matrix Publication, 1981).

Aaron Siskind

margin, verso

Lafayette Theater, Harlem, 1937, "HD" [Harlem Document?]

verso [in pencil, in unknown hand]

Aaron Siskind was born on December 4, 1903, in New York City. He attended City College, earning his BSS in Literature in 1926. After college, he taught English in the New York City public school system from 1926 to 1947. In 1929, he married Sidonie Glaller, and received his first camera as a wedding gift. Throughout the 1930s, he was active in the New York Photo League and formed Feature Group, a documentary production unit as a part of the Photo League School. The photographs produced by Siskind and his associates were published as ‘The Feature Group’ in Photo Notes in 1940, most of them featuring scenes of city life. In the 1940s, Siskind developed ties with several New York School artists, and his work became increasingly abstract and symbolic. In 1945, he published ‘The Drama of Objects’, a series of photographs featuring compositions comprised of objects he found around Martha’s Vineyard, MA. During this period and into the 1950s, his work was regularly exhibited in New York City, particularly at the Charles Egan Gallery. In addition to his ongoing photography career, Siskind taught photography at Trenton Junior College in New Jersey from 1947 to 1949; the Illinois Institute of Technology, Institute of Design in Chicago from 1951 to 1971, also serving as head of the Photographic Department from 1959 to 1971; and the Rhode Island School of Design from 1971 to 1976. He had a close connection with fellow photographer Harry Callahan, whom he met while teaching at Black Mountain College in the summer of 1951; the two taught and worked together for most of Siskind’s later career. From 1960 to 1970, he served as co-editor of Choice Magazine. He was a founding member of both the Society for Photographic Education and the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, New York and served as a board member for the Gallery of Contemporary Art in Chicago. He maintained an active photography career until his death in Providence, Rhode Island in February, 1991.

theatres; fires; entertainers; black-and-white photographs

http://www.howardgreenberg.com/; http://aaronsiskind.org/chronology.html

Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art. State University of New York at New Paltz (New Paltz, New York, United States)

Photography Collection. Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art

http://hvvacc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/sdma/id/5054

contemporary (generic time frame)

Contemporary (style of art)

Photo League of New York

Estate of Tennyson Schad

Gift of Howard and Ellen Greenberg

http://hvvacc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/sdma/id/5054