Cooling off during those hot summer days


"BOY JUMPING INTO                               
             HUDSON RIVER"

Gelatin silver print, 1948

The Jewish Museum New York

Cooling off during those hot summer days...

“Here we once again see Orkin’s style of taking photographs capturing not life as we dream it should or shouldn’t be but life as it is.

 We see a boy jumping from the roof of a building with broken windows into the Hudson river.

 A woman is sticking her head out the window and the people on the docks are watching him, there is a line on the roof with the next boy already preparing to jump after the one in the air. 

They have no knowledge of Orkin taking the photograph and because of this we can truly see what is happening. From a seemingly run down building we see children having a great time.

 By showing us what is Ruth Orkin shows her viewers the highs and lows of society exactly as they come.”

by matthewtuckman

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