Milton is 100!

Milton at work in the darkroom. Photo © Diane Bush, c. 1982

Well, I blew this. Last summer or fall I was going to do a post about Milton Rogovin, the social documentary portraitist from Buffalo, New York. But then I thought, wait a minute, he turns 100 on December 30th—why not wait until then? So I wrote myself a little note to help me remember the significance of the 30th of December.

And then I missed it.

Well, Happy Birthday Milton R., a little late. 

Milton was the subject of the film "The Rich Have Their Own Photographers," which was recently shown on PBS. (As far as I know, not available on DVD—please let me know if you know otherwise.) He has published numerous books, many of which are still in print; if you're new to his work, you might want to start with The Forgotten Ones. There's a small selection of Milton's recurring portraiture—he photographed a number of his subjects at different points in time—at Alec Soth's Archived Blog. (Do read the captions.)

He won the ICP's Cornell Capa Award in 2007, and was featured in the New York Times' Lens blog last summer, and of course has his own website.

All pretty cool for one of the youngest and newest centenarians.

Isn't that a wonderful portrait at the top of the page, by Diane Bush? I managed to find her, and I'm buying a small print of it for my now-growing collection. My kind of picture.

Some day I might even run across that note I wrote to myself last summer. Maybe in time to wish Milton Happy 102nd or 103rd.

Mike
(Thanks to Louis McCullagh)

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Featured Comment by Erlik: "And here's the trailer for the film on YouTube. Bigger than the dinky one on Telling Images. You can see the photographs better."

Comments

[Doug Howk]

So we can 'thank' Nixon for Milton becoming a photographer; otherwise he may have remained a small-town optometrist. His work is excellent - a social documentarian.

[Simon Mitternacht]

Just a question, if I put a book in my amazon wishlist through your link, like I just did with The Forgotten Ones, will you still get credit if and when I decide to order it? This is namely what I usually do, and then I order a couple of books at once when I feel I can afford it.

[Mike Johnston]

Simon,
We only get credit if you go to Amazon from here when you actually make the order. And we do not get credit for items previously placed in your Wish List. Thanks for asking!

Mike

[Bill Bresler]

I saw Milton Rogovin's work back in the early 1970s, in Camera 35 magazine, I think. Jim Hughes may have been editor at that time. Anyway, his great images of people influenced me to this day. Thanks for reminding us about the work of a great man.

[Stan B.]

Sweet photo, great man and photographer! Didn't we all look so much younger in '82...

[Miserere]

Mike, may I suggest Google Calendar to you? You need a Gmail address first, then you automatically have a calendar, to which you can add any and all events you want. But most importantly, you can add reminders to those events in the form of e-mails or window pop-ups, and you can schedule those reminders for whenever you see fit (5 mins, 6 hours, 2 days...before the date).

For better of for worse, I can't live without Google Calendar anymore.

Back on topic, I'm pleased you introduced me to The Forgotten Ones; a labour of love as much as Photography. In the link to Alec Soth's blog there is a post by Peter Feldstein (author of The Oxford Project) commenting on the differences and similarities between the the two; what a perfect bonus.

[George Peng]

Slightly OT, but its been noted that a number of photographers seem to be unusually long-lived - Adams, Cartier-Bresson, Levitt, Rogevin, etc. I know the speculation behind it revolves around mental engagement and longevity, but I wonder if there's been anything more than anecdotal in terms of the statistical aberration here...

[Photography Holidays]

What an old master Milton Rogovin is! One of my favs. Up there with other documaentary photographers like Lewis Hine and Jacob Riis.

[misha]

"a number of photographers seem to be unusually long-lived"

There's also a correlation between eyeglasses and photography. I'm from Buffalo. Milton was an optometrist; I started out as an optician.

Finally, a correlation with politics. The Buffalo News once called him the "city's #1 red." I was raised in my grandfather's house. He started out reading Der Tag, a Yiddish communist paper, and subscribed to The Forward, a Yiddish socialist paper, until he died. Rogovin and I are both secular, too.

[Paul Amyes]

The reason the photographers live longer is that they've been soaked in fixer.

[Martin Doonan]

That is indeed a fine portrait but it being "your sort of photograph" I can't then decide whether that marks your taste eclectic or esoteric.

[Ari]

I seem to remember that Ralph Eugene Meatyard was also a small-town optometrist. Any others?

[Katie]

I just saw some of Milton Rogovin's work at the Phoenix Art Museum. It was a great exhibit; he is such a great talent.