Label Text:
Engel took this photograph for the Harlem Document series, one of the better-known projects of the New York Photo League, a cooperative of politically minded photographers. Organized by Aaron Siskind, the project documented the lives of Harlem residents in the hopes that the photographs could instigate positive change.
In Harlem Merchant, the figure, presumably the proprietor of the shop, peers glumly from a small window, his head framed by the window casings and aligned with multiple large jars of candies, as if he is just another dusty and disheveled item for sale. Placards advertising tobacco products seem to comment on his life. “DAYS WORK” could describe his day-to-day existence, while “Sweet” and “BETTER” promise a quality of life that was likely clearly and painfully out of reach for this Depression-era merchant.
MD, PHOTOdocument exhibition, March 30, 2012-July 22, 2012
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=AC+2000.379 |
