PIX Publishing

Last updated

PIX, Inc was an early New York City photo bureau which followed European, particularly German, precedents. From 1935 to 1969 it supplied news and feature photos to magazines, especially Life and, later, Sports Illustrated.

Contents

Formation

The agency was founded in New York City at 250 Park Avenue in November 1935 by Leon Daniel and Celia Kutschuk. It pre-dates the more famous Magnum (begun in 1947). Born in Ukraine, Kutschuk had studied photojournalism at Rhine University, and both had worked as picture editors at the Associated Press office in Berlin, which was headed by American Louis Lochner from 1928 until 1941, when Germany and the United States declared war and Lochner was held and then deported as an enemy alien. Jewish employees were sacked, and many fled Europe. [1]

European roots


PIX acted as an intermediary between émigré photographers and the American magazine and newspaper market, profiting from the development of photojournalism in the USA in the 1930s onwards. [2] As many of the photographers for PIX were naturalized American citizens, they were not allowed in the war theaters during WWII, so they stayed home and covered the home front, though during the Korean War and Cold War, Ed Feingersh produced striking reportage.

The photographers

The first-signed photographers of the agency were Alfred Eisenstaedt (1898–1995) and Georg Karger (1909–1973). Eisenstaedt was the best-known member of PIX and until the 1950s credited his work to PIX, Inc. He left PIX about 1957 over a royalty disagreement. Robert Capa and Cornell Capa were also briefly associated with PIX (Cornell worked as a printer in the laboratory). Karger, a German, left banking for a career in stage photography.

Jerry Cooke (b. Yuri Kutschuk, 1922–2005) was the nephew of Celia Kutschuk and initially worked in the agency darkroom before becoming a photographer and producing work for Life, Fortune, Collier's , Time , Sports Illustrated and European publications.

Lawrence Fried (1926–1983), a World War II veteran, worked steadily as a photo-journalist for The Saturday Evening Post , The New York Times , Vogue , Collier's , and Parade Magazine with over 70 covers for Newsweek . He was the recipient of the Photographer of the Year award by the Overseas Press Club, the Outstanding Service to ASMP award and the Benjamin Franklin Award.

Eileen Darby (1916–2004) worked in the PIX darkroom from 1937, in the same way as Cornell Capa, but from 1939 started photographing for the agency, which sent her on theatrical assignments, since players and producers were used to female photographers, and she subsequently founded her own agency, Graphic House, in 1941. [3] [4] [5] [6]

Other PIX photographers included Hans Knopf (1907–1967), Ed Feingersh, Bob Schwalberg, Lawrence Fried, Bob Henriques, Garry Winogrand, and George Zimbel.

Cessation

PIX was dissolved in 1969 with the rise of television which displaced the big picture magazines and most of its members moved their business to other picture agencies.

Legacy

An archive of PIX photos was amassed by Emil Klinsky (1899–?), the bulk of which is now at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO). The Spaarnestad collection in the National Archives of The Netherlands in The Hague contains photos distributed by PIX to Dutch publishing companies. The Spaarnestad collection does not contain a separate PIX archive. The photos in these archives coming from publishing companies are filed away according to subject not by the names of the photo bureaus. As far as the information goes of Spaarnestad Photo the copyrights of PIX material remained with the photographers.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Capa</span> Hungarian-American photographer

Robert Capa was a Hungarian-American war photographer and photojournalist. He is considered by some to be the greatest combat and adventure photographer in history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Photojournalism</span> Using images to tell a news story

Photojournalism is journalism that uses images to tell a news story. It usually only refers to still images, but can also refer to video used in broadcast journalism. Photojournalism is distinguished from other close branches of photography by having a rigid ethical framework which demands an honest and impartial approach that tells a story in strictly journalistic terms. Photojournalists contribute to the news media, and help communities connect with one other. They must be well-informed and knowledgeable, and are able to deliver news in a creative manner that is both informative and entertaining.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alfred Eisenstaedt</span> German-born American photojournalist (1898–1995)

Alfred Eisenstaedt was a German-born American photographer and photojournalist. He began his career in Germany prior to World War II but achieved prominence as a staff photographer for Life magazine after moving to the U.S. Life featured more than 90 of his pictures on its covers, and more than 2,500 of his photo stories were published.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Seymour (photographer)</span>

David Seymour, or Chim, was a Polish photographer and photojournalist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Center of Photography</span> Photography museum in Manhattan, New York

The International Center of Photography (ICP) is a photography museum and school at 79 Essex Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City. ICP's photographic collection, reading room, and archives are at Mana Contemporary in Jersey City, New Jersey. The organization was founded by Cornell Capa in 1974. It is located at 79 Essex Street, within the Lower East Side.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gerda Taro</span> German photographer

Gerta Pohorylle, known professionally as Gerda Taro, was a German war photographer active during the Spanish Civil War. She is regarded as the first female photojournalist to have died while covering the frontline in a war.

Dirck Storm Halstead was an American photojournalist. He was editor and publisher of The Digital Journalist, an online photojournalism magazine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cornell Capa</span> Hungarian American photographer (1918–2008)

Cornell Capa was a Hungarian-American photographer, member of Magnum Photos, photo curator, and the younger brother of photo-journalist and war photographer Robert Capa. Graduating from Imre Madách Gymnasium in Budapest, he initially intended to study medicine, but instead joined his brother in Paris to pursue photography. Cornell was an ambitious photo enthusiast who founded the International Center of Photography in New York in 1974 with help from Micha Bar-Am after a stint of working for both Life magazine and Magnum Photos.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ralph Morse</span> American photographer (1917–2014)

Ralph Theodore Morse was a career staff photographer for Life magazine. He photographed some of the most widely seen pictures of World War II, the United States space program, and sports events, and was celebrated for his multiple-exposure photographs. Morse's success as an improviser led to his being considered Life magazine's specialist in technical photography. Former managing editor George P. Hunt declared that "If [the] equipment he needed didn't exist, [Morse] built it."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maria Eisner</span> Italian-American photographer, photo editor and photo agent (1909–1991)

Maria Eisner was an Italian-American photographer, photo editor and photo agent. She was one of the founders of Magnum Photos, and the first head of its Paris office.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Horst Faas</span>

Horst Faas was a German photo-journalist and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner. He is best known for his images of the Vietnam War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Stanmeyer</span> American photojournalist

John Stanmeyer, is an American photojournalist based in Otis, Massachusetts. He is one of the founders of VII Photo Agency. Stanmeyer has received the World Press Photo of the Year, Robert Capa Gold Medal, Magazine Photographer of the Year from Pictures of the Year International, and a National Magazine Award for Photojournalism.

Stefan Lorant was a pioneering Hungarian-American filmmaker, photojournalist, and author.

Yannis Kontos is a Greek documentary photographer, professor of photography and commercial photographer. He has covered major events for over a decade in more than 50 countries. His work has been published in newspapers, magazines, and books.

John Godfrey Morris was an American picture editor, author and journalist, and an important figure in the history of photojournalism.

<i>The Magnificent Eleven</i> Series of photographs by Robert Capa

The Magnificent Eleven are a group of photos of D-Day taken by war photographer Robert Capa. Capa was with one of the earliest waves of troops landing on the American invasion beach, Omaha Beach. Capa stated that while under fire, he took 106 pictures, all but eleven of which were destroyed in a processing accident in the Life magazine photo lab in London, although the accidental loss of the remaining negatives has been disputed. The surviving photos have since been called the Magnificent Eleven. The pictures have been widely celebrated, and Steven Spielberg is said to have been inspired by them when filming Saving Private Ryan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lawrence Fried</span>

Lawrence Fried was an American photo-journalist. He was born to first-generation Jewish Hungarian and Russian parents in New York, N. Y. Fried's work appeared in Newsweek, The Saturday Evening Post, The New York Times, Vogue, Collier's, and Parade Magazine.[1] with over 70 covers for Newsweek [2]. He was the recipient of the Photographer of the Year award by the Overseas Press Club, the Outstanding Service to ASMP award and the Benjamin Franklin Award [3].

Jerry Cooke was an American photojournalist from the 1940s-1990s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ed Feingersh</span> American photographer (1925 - 1961)

Ed Feingersh (1925–1961) studied photography under Alexey Brodovitch at the New School of Social Research. He later worked as a photojournalist for the Pix Publishing agency. His talent for available light photography under seemingly impossible conditions was well recognised. His pictures of Marilyn Monroe are his best known, but he was a prolific photojournalist throughout the 1950s. Two of his moody photographs of jazz performers were selected by Edward Steichen for MoMA’s world-touring The Family of Man exhibition.

Eileen Darby Lester was an American photographer of Broadway theatre productions.

References

  1. "Leon started his career as a picture editor for the Associated Press office in Berlin. He was cofounder of Pix Publishing in New York, an independent agency mainly supplying photographs to magazines and newspapers, it was dissolved in 1969." 'Obituary Leon Daniel,' The New York Times, December 31, 1974.
  2. Estelle Blaschke, Photography and the Commodification of Images: from the Bettmann Archive to Corbis (1924–2010), thèse de doctorat de l'EHESS, sous la direction d'André Gunthert et Michel Poivert, 2011, 280 p.
  3. Martin, Douglas (April 13, 2004). "Eileen Darby, 87, Photographer Of Noted Broadway Shows". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved April 13, 2023.
  4. "Eileen Darby Lester, 87". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved April 13, 2023.
  5. Archives, L. A. Times (April 21, 2004). "Eileen Darby Lester, 87; Prolific Photographer of Broadway's Stars". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 13, 2023.
  6. Darby, Eileen; Henderson, Mary C., 1928– (2005), Stars on stage : Eileen Darby & Broadway's Golden Age : photographs 1940–1964 (1st ed.), Bulfinch Press, ISBN   978-0-8212-2897-5 {{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)