Ruth Orkins Women shows sensational negatives and slides unearthed from the archives that reveal a little-known side of Ruth Orkin: that of the sensitive, interested, witty chronicler of the world of women in the forties and fifties.
Orkin came up with editorials such as the ironic report Who works harder? comparing the lives of a career woman and a housewife. She documented the hustle and bustle in beauty salons and cocktail parties, at dog shows and on Hollywood movie sets.
We see Lauren Bacall, Jane Russell, Joan Taylor or Doris Day, but also waitresses, stewardesses and female soldiers, as well as groups of friends.
What emerges is the image of women in motion, women who begin to throw off the conventions imposed on them and go their own way: confident, stylish, smart.
American photographer, photojournalist and filmmaker Ruth Orkin (1921–1985) grew up in Hollywood as the daughter of a silent film actress. She was one of the first women to study photojournalism at Los Angeles City College.
In 1943, Orkin moved to New York City, where she worked as a freelance photojournalist. Her photographs have appeared in The New York Times, LIFE, Look, Ladies' Home Journal and other publications.
Ruth Orkin is a street photography legend; her atmospheric photographs taken in cities such as Florence, New York and London still shape today's image of these metropolises. But Orkin's specialty included not only the urban, but also the personal.
To mark what would have been her 100th birthday in 2021, exhibitions were held across Europe and North America, and Hatje Cantz published A Photo Spirit dedicated to her life and groundbreaking work, with an equally extensive and fascinating overview of the oeuvre of this exceptional artist.
Exhibitions: f3 – freiraum für fotografie, Berlin December 8, 2023 – February 18, 2024, and Gallery of Fine Arts, Ostrava, March 5 to May 12, 2024.
Ruth Orkin - Women, edited Nadine Barth, Katharina Mouratidi
Pages: 144
Price: €43.99
Publisher: Hatje Cantz
