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Milton Rogovin: The Forgotten Ones

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I'm a 35 year old black male, big, 245lbs, who lives in the rough part of Northeast DC. I'm also a photographer. I wept when I read along with some of these stories and looked at the photos. Real folks, just like you and me. Folks who worry about their mortgages, dislike their boss, happy its Friday, know how to party, have kids, and wife who can't fit in her wedding dress anymore. Snobs like to classify photography: documentary, post modern portraiture, premature ejaculatory something or other - doesn't matter, cause what this is, is real life caught on film. That's it. And its done with such evident love and devotion devoid of tricks that its revelatory as well as relevant.

Documentary photographer and humanitarian Milton Rogovin (December 30, 1909 - January 18, 2011) has died at age 101. His long life included serving as an optometrist until the House on UnAmerican Activities halted his practice due to his commitment that communism was a viable form of philosophy that would care for the disenfranchised. After his departure from his career as a professional he become one of the leading documentary photographers of his time, photographing portfolios of life in the mines, life in Mexico, and most sensitively this collection THE FORGOTTEN ONES - images of common people in both Buffalo, New York (1957 - 1984) and New York City's Lower West Side - a project that gave him the opportunity to capture the changes in the lives of people over four decades from 1972 to 2002. These images are repeated images of the same people or families that ne photographed every 10 years, forming quartets of time's passage on the faces, bodies, and outlooks and fortunes of those people he termed 'forgotten ones.' These are not manipulated images but rather straightforward, simple 'sittings' of everyday folk. They are immensely touching, warm, humorous, and tender.

This book is enhanced by interviews with the subjects conducted by radio journalists David Isay and David Miller. With the running commentary interspersed with Rogovin's full page black and white photographs the forgotten ones' come very much alive, telling us the stories of the passage of time that will touch the hearts of every reader who experiences this book. Rogovin will be very much missed. Grady Harp, February 11

This week someone forwarded to me some pics of the Detroit decline: beautiful theaters turning to dust, houses falling in... What Rogovin has captured here is the vibrancy of an area (Buffalo's south side) that once had thousands of manufacturing jobs. He's focussed on the people holding those jobs, along with their families. Last time I visited, these factories were dust. I'll be looking for a similar photographic essay of Detroit!