Benches, Royal Park, Montreal, Canada

Brooklyn-born N. Jay Jaffee began taking photographs after returning to New York from army service after World War II. He studied at the Photo League and was mentored by Edward Steichen, then curator of photography at the Museum of Modern Art, who was responsible for the first appearance of Jaffee’s work in a group show, 51 American Photographers (Museum of Modern Art, 1950). Since then, his work has been in numerous exhibitions, including Inward Image at the Brooklyn Museum of Art (1981). His photographs are found in the collections of the Library of Congress, the National Museum of American Art, the George Eastman House, and other museums.