Label TextFor Milton Rogovin, photography was a tool for social justice. Rogovin was called before
Congress’s Un-American Activities Committee in 1952 due to his interest in workers’
rights and pre-Stalinist Communism. Afterwards, he was ostracized by the community of
his hometown Buffalo, NY, where lived with his family. Rogovin refused to be silenced
and spent the next 60 years documenting the lives of the disadvantaged. His interest in
labor and the working class is reflected in several series including the Family of Miners,
in which photographed mine workers across ten nations; Working People, where he
captured workers at their jobs and at home; and the Lower West Side, an expansive
documentation of Buffalo neighborhood where he documented families over thirty
years. Explained Rogovin, “the rich have their own photographers, I choose to
photograph the forgotten ones.”
DimensionsOverall: 10 x 8 in. (25.4 x 20.3 cm)
Accession Number 2025.213
Classificationsphotograph
Portfolio/Series"Early Mexico" series
ProvenanceJeff Perry; Des Moines Art Center [gift from the previous, 2025]
Patrick Nagatani
1991/2001