![]() ![]() “Her arrival in New York at a time when America was called “the arsenal of democracy” unexpectedly confronted her with the fact that the United States was not the ideal society many envisioned. She wanted to know the “why” of a situation, how it affected the people involved – hence the classification of herself as a social researcher photographer. But for Palfi, it was not enough to simply document. What honourable concepts she was investigating using her camera to affect social change. She originally had trouble getting her photographs displayed or show cased because many Americans refused to address these social justice issues within their own society.”1Įquality, opportunity and justice for all people. She created many photographic studies that focus on racial injustice against African Americans, poverty in cities, and racial discrimination against Native Americans. Palfi’s photography explored the concepts of social injustices in America. Using her new perspective on the topic of injustice and racial discrimination she was able to draw attention to these issues by documenting them with her camera. Palfi decided to use her camera as a way to document these problems and bring attention to them within the public eye. She also was confused by Americans lack of acknowledgement of these problems within their communities. During her time traveling across the United States she was bothered by the amount of poverty and racial intolerance she was exposed. Palfi was a contributing photographer to Edward Steichen’s landmark Family of Man exhibition in 1955. Palfi’s 1952 book Suffer Little Children focused on the living condition of disadvantaged children across the U.S., including the young inmates of the New York Training School for Girls. In her photo book There is No More Time: An American Tragedy, Palfi documented racism and segregation in Irwinton, GA, the site of the murder of Caleb Hill, the first reported lynching of 1949. “Marion Palfi’s work centered around equity, opportunity, and justice for all people. She then fled Europe for the United States in 1940 after marrying an American soldier. In 1934 she opened her own portrait studio in Berlin before fleeing the Nazis and opening a successful portrait studio in Amsterdam in 1936. Why is this courageous artist and human being not better known – this “social researcher photographer” (her term) that fought the good fight and pictured social injustices in America wherever she saw it.īorn in Germany, Palfi rejected Germany’s radical politics and began to use photography and art to effect social change. That’s the question that keeps buzzing around my head. I had never heard of this woman artist before and I have been studying photography for over 30 years now. This applies to the work of Marion Palfi. Photographs that were important at the time they were taken and have great “exposure” may loose their relevance over time, only to have their presence reignited in the present future, to have their power and insightfulness understood by a new generation. Photographs transcend the time in which they were taken, bringing past time to present and future time. Time is something that photography has so little of – the snap of the shutter – and yet, paradoxically, so much of. This year the website had 1,158,000 views and 769,000 visitors. This is the last posting for 2021, the next being 9th January 2022. © Center for Creative Photography, Arizona Board of Regents Marion Palfi (American born Germany, 1907-1978)Ĭenter for Creative Photography, University of Arizona: Marion Palfi Archive / Gift of the Menninger Foundation and Martin Magner Exhibition dates: 21st July, 2021 – 2nd January, 2022
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