Source
Ben Shahn — International Center of Photography
Citation
International Center of Photography. “Ben Shahn.” Constituent page in the ICP archive-browse index. Accessed 2026-05-09. https://www.icp.org/browse/archive/constituents/ben-shahn
Relevance
Tier-1 institutional archive page for Ben Shahn at ICP. Reference for his biographical anchor (1898–1969, American, born Lithuania; Resettlement Administration / FSA photographer 1935–1938; primarily a painter who used photography as a reference tool). Ben Shahn has one plate in The Family of Man per strict-match grep against data/photographs.csv (2026-05-09): photo-0377 (USA).
Key excerpts / pages
Verbatim quotations from the page fetched 2026-05-09:
- “Ben Shahn was born in Kovno, Lithuania, and immigrated with his family to New York at the age of six.”
- “He first worked as an apprentice to a commercial lithographer, acquiring skills that would later support him financially while he pursued his ambition to be a painter.”
- “Shahn’s initial interest in photography stemmed from his use of the medium as a reference tool for his paintings.”
- “In the 1930s, Shahn was employed as an artist at the Resettlement Administration in Washington DC, where from 1935 to 1938 he also worked in a part-time position in Roy Stryker’s photography department.”
- “Shahn exploited the portability of the 35mm camera to capture his subjects in an informal and spontaneous manner; he used a Leica with a right-angle viewfinder that enabled him to photograph subjects without their knowledge.”
- “In addition to his photographic work for the FSA, Shahn established a reputation as a leading American realist painter.”
- “A retrospective exhibition of his work was held at the Museum of Modern Art in 1947, and he represented the United States at the Venice Biennale in 1954.”
Biographical dates and nationality on the page: “1898 - 1969”, “American (b. Lithuania)”.
Bibliography references (rendered cleanly):
- “Phillips, Christopher, and Vanessa Rocco, eds. Modernist Photography: Selections from the Daniel Cowin Collection. New York: International Center of Photography and Göttingen, Germany: Steidl, 2005, p. 110.”
- “Edwards, Susan. Ben Shahn and the Task of Photography in Thirties America. New York: Hunter College, 1995.”
- “Kao, Deborah Martin, Laura Katzman, and Jenna Webster. Ben Shahn’s New York: The Photography of Modern Times. Cambridge, MA: Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University Art Museums, 2000.”
Notes
- Perspective: institutional / archival.
- The ICP page gives year-only resolution (1898 / 1969). The September 12, 1898 / March 14, 1969 day-month tokens are independently confirmed by Encyclopædia Britannica (src-britannica-ben-shahn, fetched 2026-05-09).
- The page does not name The Family of Man. The connection is made via the MoMA Master Checklist (src-moma-exh-0569-master-checklist, in repo) at the plate level. The Wikipedia article (src-wikipedia-ben-shahn-pointer) further notes that Shahn’s October 1935 photograph of “a Resettlement Administration client in the doorway of their home, Boone County, Arkansas” was selected by Steichen for FoM and that “Only the huddled figure of the woman on the right hand half of Shahn’s 35mm frame was blown up for the display.”
- Verified against fetched source on 2026-05-09 via
curl -fsSL https://www.icp.org/browse/archive/constituents/ben-shahn(HTTP 200).