MORRIS ENGEL

(1918 - 2005) b. Brooklyn, New York

Morris Engel was an American street photographer and cinematographer. After graduating high school he became a member of the cooperative of photographers called the Photo League in New York in 1936. This hoard of photographers was formed by coming together creatively around political and social issues. It was here that Engel met the artists that would introduce him to the art of filmmaking. His photography shows the everyday life of New Yorkers, the romantic, playful and, hopeful. This style of street photography translated strongly to film, which made his work in both mediums successful.

In 1941, Engel joined the U.S. Navy and was to join the Combat Photo Unit 8 that later landed and photographed Normandy on D-Day. Engel worked as a staff photographer for the newspaper “PM” before the war and soon returned to after coming home in 1946. He worked for an array of other national magazines as Fortune and Ladies Home Journal. While working commercially, he remained in the Photo League and taught artistic workshops.

Engel became an award-winning director in 1953, after his critically and internationally acclaimed film, “Little Fugitive.” His work has been exhibited in solo and group shows internationally. Among being published for the past eight decades in institutions as the Life Library of Photography, Vanity Fair, and the U.S. Camera Annual, his work can be found in a long list of public collections. The work of Engel is in permanent collections as the Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois, International Center of Photography in New York, New York, National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, Rhode Island, and, Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, Connecticut.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

1939 The New School for Social Research,Introduction by Paul Strand

1940 The Photo League, NYC

1944 U.S. Navy exhibit at The Ilford Company,London, England

1999 Photographs Do Not Bend, Dallas, TXHoward Greenberg Gallery, NYC

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

1948 The Exact Instant, 100 Years of News

Photography, In and Out of Focus,

50 Photographs by 50 Photographers,

Museum of Modern Art, NYC

1978 Photographic Crossroads: The Photo League, International Center for Photography

1983 Roy Stryker: U.S.A., 1943-1950,International Center of Photography, NYC

1985 American Images 1945-1980, Barbican Art Gallery, London, England

A Tribute to Lee D. Witkin, The Witkin Gallery, Inc., NYC

1986 Tides of Immigration, Romantic Visions andUrban Realities, Brooklyn College, NYC

1987-89 The Photo League, 1936-1951, organized bySUNY New Paltz, travelled to 10 colleges throughout New York State

1993 On the Elbow, The Witkin Gallery, Inc., NYCThe Photo League, Gallery 292, NYC

1995 An American Century of Photography: From Dry-plate to Digital, The Hallmark

Photography Collection, ICP, NYC

1998 The New York School of Photography, 1930s - 1960's, Jan Kesner Gallery, LA, CA

Take the A Train, Howard Greenberg Gallery

Eight Million Stories: Twentieth-Century

New York Life in Prints and Photographs,

New York Public Library, NYC

1999 Photo League, Fundacion Telefonica, Spain

PUBLICATIONS

U.S. Camera Annual, 1939

Life Library of Photography, Documentary Photography, Time-Life Books, 1972

Studio Photography, Morris Engel, Part 1: Stranded, by Casey Allen, August 1997

Studio Photography, Morris Engel, Part ll: D-Day, by Casey Allen, September 1997

Studio Photography, Morris Engel, Part III: Makin' Movies, by Casey Allen, October 1997

Vanity Fair, PM's Impossible Dream, by David Margolick, January 1999

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, TX
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, ME
Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, AZ
George Eastman House, Rochester, NY
William A. Farnsworth Library and Art Museum, Rockland, ME
Hallmark Photographic Collection, Kansas City, MO
International Center of Photography, New York, NY
LA County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Museum of the City of New York, New York, NY
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA
New York Public Library, New York, NY
Newark Museum, Newark, NJ
Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, FL
Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO
San Antonio Museum Association, San Antonio, TX
Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, KS
University of Louisville Photographic Archives, Louisville, KY
University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque, NM
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT