Audio Tour - Facing the Lens

Harrison Photography Gallery 365

1208 - Jerome Liebling
Speaking in 1980

Elaine Mayes
American, born 1938
Jerome Liebling on TV, Minneapolis, 1969
Gelatin silver print
The Ethel Morrison Van Derlip Fund 82.89.1

Jerome Liebling is an influential teacher and documentarian, who, as a young photographer, joined New York's activist Photo League and studied under Paul Strand. He was professor of photography and film at the University of Minnesota from 1949 to 1969, in one of the country's first such programs. Liebling's own work is squarely based on the human condition and social justice. His best-known Minnesota series depict both politicians and meat-packers. In 1970 he moved to Hampshire College, in Amherst, Massachusetts, where he taught for twenty years and continues to live.