Description

Taken when Walter Rosenblum was 19, these images depict a world he knew intimately: street life on the Lower East Side. One of five children of Jewish immigrants, Rosenblum grew up in a three-room tenement flat without hot running water not far from Pitt Street. He understood the desire to exchange stuffy, overcrowded apartments for the fresher, cooler air of the street. Rosenblum is one of many photographers in this exhibition who belonged to the Photo League, whose members sought to bring about social change through photography.