Ruth Orkin - A Photo Spirit
Overview
Intro
Ruth Orkin was a pioneer of the 1940/50s: internationally published, part of The Family of Man, known for "American Girl in Italy" - modern, emancipated photography.
Ruth Orkin is one of the few professional female photographers of the 1940s and 1950s. Although she published in numerous newspapers and magazines such as the New York Times, Life and Look and her photographs were part of the legendary MOMA exhibition The Family of Man, she is still little known internationally. Quite in contrast to many of her male colleagues, whose works are among the icons of street photography.
Ruth Orkin began taking photographs at the age of ten. She created her first major photographic work in 1939. At the age of 17, she crossed the USA by bicycle and camera, once from L.A. to New York for the World's Fair. She moved there in 1943.
Her career as a freelance photographer began in 1945 with the publication of a photo in Star magazine. In 1951 Ruth Orkin was commissioned by Life magazine to travel to Israel. She documented the young country and its (newly arrived) inhabitants as well as life in the kibbutz. This trip was one of her most important personal experiences.
One of her most famous pictures is the photograph "American Girl in Italy". For the photo, she portrayed her traveling acquaintance Ninalee Craig (Jinx Allen), surrounded by men in Florence in 1951. Jinx became her friend and muse and inspired her to create an entire series that shows with an ironic look what it was like to travel alone as a woman in the 1950s.
traveling alone as a woman in the 1950s.
Throughout her life and work, Ruth Orkin has experienced, reflected and subverted society's expectations. Her photographs are modern, free and sensitive commentaries on these times. Ruth Orkin would have been 100 years old on September 3, 2021.
A collaboration between Photobatsei and f3 - freiraum für fotografie in Berlin. The exhibition has been compiled and curated by Katharina Mouratidi.
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Romano Zerbini
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Event dates
- 15 May 2026
- 16 May 2026
- 17 May 2026
- 20 May 2026
- 21 May 2026
- 22 May 2026
- 23 May 2026
- 24 May 2026
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Photobastei
Sihlquai 125
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Zürich
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