Aaron Siskind
1903–1991
Introduction
Aaron Siskind (December 4, 1903 – February 8, 1991) was an American photographer whose work focuses on the details of things, presented as flat surfaces to create a new image independent of the original subject. He was closely involved with, if not a part of, the abstract expressionist movement, and was close friends with artists Franz Kline (whose own breakthrough show at the Charles Egan Gallery occurred in the same period as Siskind's one-man shows at the same gallery), Mark Rothko, and Willem de Kooning.
Wikidata identifier
Q302714
Information from Wikipedia, made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License . Accessed July 4, 2025.
Introduction
Born 4 December 1903; died 8 February 1991. Siskind took his first photographs while on vacation in Bermuda in 1930. In 1932 Siskind worked as a freelance photographer. In 1935 Siskind photographed the Harlem district of New York City, New York for the "Harlem Document". From 1951 to 1959 Siskind served as a professor of photography at Illinois Institute of Technology. In 1959 he became director of the photography department, a position he held until 1970. Siskind was a founding member of the Society for Photographic Education in 1963. In 1981 Siskind photographed in Peru.
Country of birth
United States
Roles
Artist, photographer, teacher
ULAN identifier
500024299
Names
Aaron Siskind
Information from the Getty Research Institute's Union List of Artist Names ® (ULAN), made available under the ODC Attribution License. Accessed July 4, 2025.
