Ruth Orkin (b. 1921, Boston- d. 1985, New York) received her first camera — a 39-cent Univex — at the age of ten, and never really put one down. At seventeen, she made her way from Los Angeles to New York City by car, by train, and bicycled over 2000 miles through five major cities to see the 1939 World's Fair, taking photos along the way. She moved to New York in 1943, shooting baby pictures by day and nightclub portraits after dark, saving until she could afford her first professional camera.
The major magazines came calling throughout the decade. Among her early distinctions, her photograph of Geraldine Dent became the first color photo published on the cover of Ladies' Home Journal. Summers drew her to Tanglewood, where she photographed the great classical musicians of her era — Leonard Bernstein, Isaac Stern, Aaron Copland, Jascha Heifetz, Serge Koussevitzky — and formed friendships that would last her lifetime.
In 1951, LIFE magazine sent her to Israel with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, and afterward she traveled to
Florence, where she met fellow American art student Nina Lee Craig. Together they made a series of photographs, including American Girl in Italy of a young woman striding through a gauntlet of staring men outside the Cafe Gilli — part of a series titled Don't Be Afraid to Travel Alone that debuted in Cosmopolitan in 1952. It remains one of the most recognized photographs of the twentieth century.
Back in New York, she married photographer and filmmaker Morris Engel. Together they raised two children and produced two feature films, including Little Fugitive, which won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival and earned an Academy Award nomination in 1953, launching the American independent film movement and inspiring the French New Wave.
In the years that followed, Orkin photographed the world from the window of her Central Park apartment — marathons, parades, protests, concerts, and the changing seasons — the subject of two widely acclaimed books, A World Through My Window (1978) and More Pictures From My Window (1983). Ruth Orkin died on January 16, 1985, in her New York apartment, surrounded by her life's work.
All photographs © Ruth Orkin. Ruth Orkin, American Girl in Italy, 1952/1980
