Milton Rogovin | |
---|---|
Born |
New York City, New York, United States |
December 30, 1909
Died | January 18, 2011 Buffalo, New York, United States |
(aged 101)
Education | Columbia University, 1931, Optometry |
Occupation | Documentary photographer |
Spouse(s) | Anne Snetsky (later changed to Setters), (m. 1942–2003) |
Website | http://www.miltonrogovin.com/ |
Milton Rogovin Pronounced "ruh-GO-vin" (December 30, 1909 – January 18, 2011) was a documentary photographer who has been compared to great social documentary photographers of the 19th and 20th centuries, such as Lewis Hine and Jacob Riis. His photographs are in the Library of Congress, the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Center for Creative Photography and other distinguished institutions.
Milton Rogovin was born December 30, 1909 in Brooklyn, New York City of ethnic Jewish parents who emigrated to America from Lithuania, then part of the Russian empire. He attended Stuyvesant High School in New York City and enrolled in Columbia University, from which he graduated in 1931 with a degree in optometry.
Following graduation Rogovin worked as an optometrist in New York City. Distressed by the rampant and worsening poverty resulting from the Great Depression, Rogovin began attending night classes at the New York Workers School, a radical educational institution sponsored by the Communist Party USA.
In 1938 Rogovin moved to Buffalo and established an optometry practice there.
In 1942, he married Anne Snetsky (later changed to Setters). In the same year, he was inducted into the U.S.Army, where he worked as an optometrist. After his discharge from the Army, Milton and Anne had three children: two daughters (Ellen and Paula) and a son (Mark).
Rogovin was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1957. Like many other Americans who embraced Communism as a model for improving the quality of life for the working class, he became a subject of the Committee's attentions in the postwar period: He was discredited — without having been convicted of any offense — as someone whose views henceforth had to be discounted as dangerous and irresponsible.