Aaron Siskind Biography

Aaron Siskind was an influential American teacher and photographer

who made innovations in abstract photography. He was born December 4,
1903, in New York to Riva Mystrovitch and Jacob Siskind, the 5th of 6
children.
He started off as an English teacher, and when he married Sidonie
Glaller he received a camera as a wedding gift. This camera would spark
his love of photography. He would soon join the New York Photo League,
becoming the photo league’s feature division director. Later, he would head
the photography department at the Chicago Institute of Design and earn
the Guggenheim Fellowship for creative arts.
Aaron Siskind turned the medium of photography on its head by
taking pictures true to life and abstract. He greatly influenced the medium
of abstract photography with his innovations. He created photo essays of
working-class people showing the people there and a slice of their life and
went on to create more abstract photos focusing on small parts of everyday
life such as objects you find or the paint peeling on the wall.
He died February 8, 1991, in Providence, Rhode Island after a long
life of teaching and influencing photography and art.