Timeline
The life and career of Arthur Rothstein, 1915–1985
Born in New York City on July 17, the son of Jewish immigrants, and raised in the Bronx
Graduates from Columbia University, where he founded the camera club and studied under Roy Stryker
Hired by Stryker as the first staff photographer of the Resettlement Administration (later the FSA)
Photographs the Dust Bowl in Cimarron County, Oklahoma, making "Farmer and Sons Walking in the Face of a Dust Storm"
Makes the steer-skull photographs in the South Dakota Badlands; the images later spark a national staging controversy
Documents the African American farming community of Gee's Bend, Alabama
Leaves the FSA and joins the new picture magazine Look
Serves as a U.S. Army Signal Corps photographer in the China-Burma-India theater during World War II
Returns to Look magazine, rising to become its director of photography
Publishes his textbook Photojournalism
Look magazine ceases publication; Rothstein continues teaching and writing
Joins Parade magazine
Dies in New Rochelle, New York, on November 11 at age 70
Explore by Decade
1930s
730 photographs from the 1930s
1940s
744 photographs from the 1940s
