Classic Cat Club, Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA

by Rosalind Fox Solomon (*1930)

Provenance: Present from the Artist to Gerd Sander //// Rosalind Fox Solomon Born April 2, 1930, Highland Park, Illinois / Highland Park High School, graduated 1947 / Received BA degree, 1951, Goucher College, Baltimore, MD / Intermittent critiques with Lisette Model, 1972—1976 / Lives and works in New York City /// • Starts making pictures in the early 70s • 1977 moved to Washington DC • Traveled to NY frequently to study with Lisette Model • After significant changes in her personal Life, she realized that photography was her calling • Additionally, she has performed her own texts and poetry on video • Famous for portraits and her connection to human suffering, ritual, survival, and struggle. Fox Solomon’s work flows back and forth between the personal and the universal. • She was never afraid to photograph difficult subjects. The viewer is asked to overcome his first “shock” when viewing and go deeper into the picture. • She was always interested in personal relationships and connections and asked the general question of whether it is ever possible to really know each other. • Solomon creates images that bear witness to the human condition in its multitudes. • Solomon: „ I wanted to take portraits of people that showed them as real human beings, no matter where they were or what their background was'" (Chapalingas, Steidl, 2003). • She travelled around the world: – India (1980s, 6 months) - Guatemala - Peruvian Andes (1980s) - Poland - Belgrade, Serbia - Vietnam - South Africa - Israel - Mexico • The Rosalind Solomon Archive came to the Center for Creative Photography in 2007. It contains a key set of over 900 fine prints, unique books, and other art works, which together with Fox Solomon’s original negatives, transparencies, personal papers, letters, business files, scrapbooks, video, audio tapes and other documentation chronicle her long and productive career. • For the past 45 years, Fox Solomon has created challenging bodies of work, shown in nearly 30 solo exhibitions and 100 group exhibitions, and in the collections of over 50 museums worldwide. Recently: 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Center of Photography // 2018 Publication “Liberty Theater” ( listed as one of the best photography books of 2018 by The New York Times Magazine) Solomon's work has been exhibited extensively internationally, and is held in many private collections: Including Musuem of Modern Art, New York; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography.