{"id":11779,"date":"2017-02-16T16:54:17","date_gmt":"2017-02-16T21:54:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.georgeglazer.com\/wpmain\/?post_type=product&p=11779"},"modified":"2017-06-10T14:36:25","modified_gmt":"2017-06-10T18:36:25","slug":"trafalgar-square-london-england-vintage-aerial-photograph-by-charles-e-rotkin","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/www.georgeglazer.com\/wpmain\/product\/trafalgar-square-london-england-vintage-aerial-photograph-by-charles-e-rotkin\/","title":{"rendered":"View, England, London, Aerial, Trafalgar Square, Charles E. Rotkin, Vintage Photograph, c. 1950s"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rotkin was a respected and prolific documentary photographer, widely published during the golden age of pictorial magazines, as well as in corporate publications. \u00a0The works that brought Rotkin the greatest renown, however, were his pioneering aerial photography collections, Europe: An Aerial Close-Up (1958) <\/strong>and The U.S.A.: An Aerial Close-Up (1962, 1968). \u00a0<\/strong><\/strong>These books captured the popular imagination at the time, thrilling the public with novel perspectives of familiar places and the beauty of both the natural and the man-made environment. \u00a0Rotkin can be seen as one of the heirs to the 19th- and early 20th-century tradition of bird’s-eye views of American towns drawn by itinerant artists in the pre-aviation era and often made into prints. \u00a0Of course, the earlier artists’ work, though convincingly drawn and detailed, were typically imaginative projections based on their studies of the town from the ground. \u00a0These became obsolete with the advent of the airplane and helicopter, which offered actual bird’s-eye views, along with cameras that could take pictures at split-second shutter speeds. \u00a0Rotkin was one of the early pioneers of the new medium and technique. \u00a0His work remains significant as an early example of aerial photography with an artistic purpose, and also as historical documents of places that in many cases have significantly changed in the ensuing decades.<\/p>\n

Rotkin became interested in photography in his late teens.\u00a0 After graduating from high school he took a night job at the post office with the notion of pursuing photography by day.\u00a0 He soon met Roy Stryker (1893-1975), who ran the Farm Security Administration’s Historical Section, where from 1935 to 1943 he oversaw the photographic documentation of the activities of this government agency.\u00a0 The FSA was formed under President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Great Depression.\u00a0 Rotkin was among the many photographers whose careers Stryker helped launch, including Walker Evans, Gordon Parks, Berenice Abbott and Dorothea Lange.\u00a0 Through the FSA, Rotkin also befriended the photographer Jack Delano and the artist Ben Shahn.\u00a0 In this milieu, he became interested in social theories of photography.\u00a0 By 1943, he had sold photo features to New York City newspapers.\u00a0 World War II was in progress, and he joined the Army, where his background as an amateur pilot led to his assignment to an Air Force squadron.\u00a0 There he did aerial and gunner photography and received informal on-the-job training as a co-pilot.\u00a0 He also took portraits of Air Force personnel that were published in military publications.<\/p>\n

When Stryker accepted a position at Standard Oil of New Jersey to document the company’s activities, he hired Rotkin to take aerial photographs of the oil fields.\u00a0 Rotkin’s connections with Stryker also led to his appointment as Chief Photographer for the Puerto Rican government’s Office of Information, where he set up what he later called “a mini-FSA” there and published his first book of documentary photography Puerto Rico: Caribbean Crossroads<\/strong> (1947).\u00a0\u00a0 In 1949 he was a founding member of the agency Photography for Industry, among the first photographers to apply the documentary approach to corporate projects such as annual reports. In addition to his industrial work, he published photographs in the Time Inc. magazines such as Life<\/strong> and Time<\/strong>, as well as Holiday<\/strong>, Business Week<\/strong>, Collier’s<\/strong>, and the New York Times Sunday Magazine<\/strong>.\u00a0 As a member of the American Society of Magazine Photographers, he promoted the intellectual property rights of photographers and served as the organization’s president for two years in the 1950s.\u00a0 Later in his life, he taught photography and wrote a respected book of career advice, Professional Photographer\u2019s Survival Guide<\/strong> (1982, rev. 1992).<\/p>\n

References:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Charles E. Rotkin (1916-2004)
\nTrafalgar Square<\/strong>
\n<\/strong>American: c. 1956-58
\nBlack and white photograph
\n16 x 20 inches
\nProvenance: Estate of the Artist
\n$300<\/p>\n

Original aerial photograph taken by Charles E. Rotkin of Trafalgar Square in London, England, for his book Europe: An Aerial Close-Up.\u00a0<\/strong>This photograph is published on page 29 of that work, with Rotkin\u2019s description:<\/p>\n

The 185-foot shaft protected by four bronze lions and flanked by plumed fountains is a tribute to Lord Nelson\u2019s victory at Trafalgar in 1805 against a French-Spanish fleet.\u00a0 It was this victory that established Britain\u2019s supremacy at sea and awakened Napoleon from his dream of the conquest of England.<\/p>\n

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