HAROLD FEINSTEIN

(1931 - 2015) b. Coney Island, NY

Harold Feinstein was born in Coney Island, New York, in 1931.  He began photographing in 1946 at the age of 15 and joined the Photo League at age 17.  By the time Feinstein was 19, Edward Steichen of the Museum of Modern Art had purchased Feinstein photographs for the museum’s permanent collection.  Former New York Times photography critic, A. D. Coleman notes that Feinstein “was considered by the photo world as something of a child prodigy.”  His work helped define what became known as the “New York School” of photography.  In 1957, when Feinstein was only 26, New York Times photocritic Jacob Deschin declared Feinstein’s work “the new pictorialism, the refinement of the craft as technically perfected language.”  In 1958, H. M. Kinzer, editor of Photography Annual, added:  “At the age of 26, Harold Feinstein has reached the point in his photographic career when the word ‘master’ is being applied to his prints by some ordinarily cautious critics.” in the 1950’s Feinstein was introduced to W. Eugene Smith, the two worked closely together on the lay-out for Smith’s Pittsburgh Essay.

Feinstein’s photography was chosen to help launch the first issue of the avante garde literary magazine Evergreen Review, which featured Jean-Paul Sartre and debuted works of Samuel Beckett. His close friend David Dellinger who was one of the most influential pacifists of the 20th century, asked Feinstein to be the primary photographer for Liberation magazine in the 50’s and 60’s.  

Feinstein’s six-decade photography career encompasses styles from small camera documentary black and white work to large format digital color. His photographs have been widely exhibited and are represented in the permanent collections of major museums including New York’s Museum of Modern Art, the International Center of Photography, the Museum of Photographic Arts, The Jewish Museum, The Brooklyn Museum, The Center for Creative Photography, and the Museum for the City of New York.  His portfolios, photo essays, and articles have been published in major periodicals around the world including, LIFE, Aperture, Black & White, Popular Photography, O Magazine, Art Business Today, US Camera, Photo Electronic Imaging, Professional Photographer, and Audubon.  LIFE published numerous Feinstein photo essays and featured his work in a short film entitled “Photographer for LIFE”.

His black and white work includes the largest collection of photographs of Coney Island by any photographer. As a Coney Islander by birth, Feinstein began photographing his favorite place in 1946, when he was 15 and continued until 2000. This body of work has been hailed as a “modern day classic,”and celebrated by ABC’s Nightline feature story on Coney Island in 1995.