Rebecca Lepkoff has been photographing
New York City since the late 1930's. Associated with the Photo
League, she captured the ethnic richness of life on the Lower
East Side and preserved that culture on vintage silver prints.
Some of these rare historical prints are still available, and
sell for thousands of dollars today. She also makes modern prints
from the original negatives which can be bought for only a few
hundred dollars, and are more available to her growing stable
of collectors.
Rebecca continued to shoot
the Lower East Side throughout the fifties, the seventies, and
the eighties. She still creates beautiful photographs today, as
well as ceramic art and wonderful quilts (which are not for sale!)
Her time is divided between her SOHO loft and country home in
Vermont.
Her works can be seen at
the Howard Greenberg Gallery in SOHO. If you ask nicely, the director
may show you some rare original prints. Please contact Rebecca
by e-mail for an opportunity to see more of her works in higher
resolution on this website. There are also three excellent video
programs featuring her works. "Gathering Grand"- on
the 1940's, "Halfway City"- on the 1950's, and "Loisaida"-
on the 1970's. These three videos are available seperately for
$25 each or as a set for $55. Contact Volcanic Video to order them. All rights are strictly
enforced, and no reproduction is allowed without express permission
from the artist.
Read on for more about
Rebecca Lepkoff:
New York Times Weekend
section, Friday January 2, 1998, "Metropolis: Glimpses of
the first 100 years" by Roberta Smith
"Next door to Greenberg,
Gallery 292 has mounted a small, but vivid show of vintage photographs
taken in the late 1940's by Rebecca Lepkoff. Judging by these
20 images, Ms... Lepkoff seems to have been equally drawn to the
city's people and it's architecture.
She photographs well dressed
professionals in "Early morning rush hour", the heated
action of a stickball game in "Lower East Side" and
a cool basilica of space defined by the legs of the El. But her
real subject may be light itself, splintered and rearranged by
New York's buildings, shading a scene with gentle grays or turning
figures into dramatic silhouettes."
In the words of Tom Gitterman,
Director of Gallery 292:
"Born in 1916, Rebecca
Lepkoff grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and started
photographing her native city when she bought her first camera
in 1938. With a background of modern dance and art history, she
photographed with a strong sense of light and abstraction and
captured the rhythm of the street. Her exquisite prints are rich
in tones and subtleties of lights and darks. Beyond mere documents
of a time and place, her images provide greater insight into human
existence within the city. Her work captures the energy of the
hustle and bustle, the commerce, the elegance and the complexities
of modern society and the plight of the individual within it.
Rebecca Lepkoff was an
active member of the Photo League from 1947 to 1951. The Photo
League, established in 1936 in New York City as an outgrowth of
the Film and Photo League, was the only organization of its kind
devoted to recording the urban reality of New York City. Lepkoff
and other members of the Photo League believed that by documenting
the human condition, the photograph was a powerful instrument
for social change. However, in 1947 during the McCarthy era, the
attorney general listed the Photo League as a communist organization
and by 1951 it was dissolved. Other great photographers from the
30's to 50's such as Lewis Hine, Sid Grossman, Paul Strand,Walter
Rosenblum, Jerome Liebling, Weegee, Arthur Leipzig, Arnold Eagle,
Sol Libsohn, W. Eugene Smith and Dan Weiner were also active members
of the Photo League. Yet it was Walter Rosenblum, with his passion
and devotion to the potential of the medium, who inspired Lepkoff
most.
Now an octogenarian, Rebecca
Lepkoff continues to lead an active life between New York and
her place in Vermont. Her work was recently included in Naomi
Rosenblum's influential publication"A History of Women Photographers"
and corresponding traveling exhibition. Rebecca Lepkoff's work
is included in such prestigious collections as the National Museum
of Art (Washington D.C.) the National Gallery of Canada, the Museum
of the City of New York, the Bank of America and the Consolidated
Freightways, Inc. Collection." 