Arthur Leipzig, who was born in New York in 1918, can be placed in the great tradition of American street photography. After his studying photography at the Photo League in the 1940s, he initially worked as an employed, later as a free lance photo journalist and, with commissions from leading magazines, travelled all over the world. And yet, New York always remained his special focus. For fifty years he strolled through the streets of the city, forever trying to capture the human face of the dynamic metropolis. He took photos of people in the subways and on the beaches of Coney Island, painters on Brooklyn Bridge, or kids swimming in the East River. It was the special mood of the night and the everyday dramas that fascinated him, the working class as well as the upper class with their distinctly different characters and situations. The city was his home. The photos that he took represent an unusual fusion of sensitivity and vitality.
The photography of Arthur Leipzig documents an era of growth and change of New York City, particularly in the 1940s and 1950s.
“As I look back at the work that I did during that period I realize that I was witness to a time that no longer exists, a more innocent time. While I know that the city has changed, that the streets are dirtier and meaner, the energy that I love is still there. No matter where I go, I keep coming back to photograph New York. Of course the “good old days” were not all sweetness and light. There was poverty, racism, corruption, and violence in those days, too, but somehow we believed in the possible. We believed in hope.” (Arthur Leipzig, 1995)

Following his participation in the very influential exhibition The Family of Man 1995 in the Museum of Modern art in New York, Arthur Leipzig joined the ranks of recognized photographer of his time. He received numerous honors and awards, and his photographs are included in the collections of major museums.
Today Arthur Leizpig lives in Sea Cliff, Long Island.

Exhibiting a selection of 120 original photographs the Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum Aachen presents the works of this important American photographer for the first time in Germany. The main focus are photographs taken in New York’s urban context, but there are also photographs recording the life and the environment of people in other places in the United States.

The exhibition, which will also be shown at City Gallery in Iserlohn, has been assembled in cooperation with the Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York. There will be a catalogue in German and in English published by Prestel Verlag in Munich.


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