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Hester Street
Sol Libsohn
ca. 1938
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The early documentary photographer Sol Libsohn was born in Harlem, the son of East European immigrants. Self-taught, he went to work for the Works Progress Administration in the 1930s, recording the lives of New Yorkers struggling during the Great Depression. In 1936, he was one of the cofounders of the Photo League, a group of left-wing photographers, most of whom were Jewish, who were committed to documenting everyday urban subjects and ordinary American lives.
Avigdor walked beyond the city limits of Tel Aviv into the endless stretch of sand. He had never seen such sand. He walked among the sand dunes, as in a forest, seeing nothing except the glaring sands…
The towering life of the towering city
Is burning in white fires.
And in the streets of the Jewish East side
The whiteness of the fires burns even whiter.
I like to stroll in the burning frenzy of…