The Charlotte Jewish News - September 2012 - Page 18
Communitv Mews
Still Exhibiting Photos from the Legendary “Photo
League,” Sonia Handelman Meyer Resides in Charlotte
By Amy Krakovitz
You would never guess that
Sonia Handelman Meyer is in her
early 90s. Her energy and elarity
defy the stereotypes.
She has defied stereotypes her
whole life, in faet. During World
War II she worked, in Puerto Rieo,
for the US Army Signal Corps.
While there she met a photogra
pher who told her about The Photo
League, a New York eity organiza
tion that held elasses, workshops,
leetures, and exhibits in the field
of photography. But not just any
kind of photography. The infiu-
enee of Sid Grossman, one of The
Photo League’s founders, led
Meyer and her eolleagues to doeu-
mentary photography.
Just prior to World War II, dur
ing the Great Depression,
Grossman felt a need to reeord the
suffering evident in New York
City. Even after the war, when
Meyer joined The Photo League,
Grossman’s inspiration eaused her
to “dedieate herself to soeial doeu-
mentary, taking photographs of
loeal neighborhoods and their eiti-
zens with a keen and sympathetie
eye for the human eondition,” says
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Lili Corbus, a Charlotte art histori
an who wrote about Meyer for a
book, “Into the Light,” the catalog
for a 2007 exhibit of The Photo
League at Hodges Taylor Gallery
in Charlotte.
The Photo League was more
than just a place for photographers
to gather. “I took eye-heart-soul
opening workshops with
Grossman,” says Meyer. And not
just workshops, but lectures,
classes, and exhibits. Over the
course of 15 years. The Photo
League and its team of photogra
phers became a force to be reck
oned with.
“Many of Meyer’s photographs
and street scenes of immigrants,
minorities, and children, whether
in Harlem, the Village, or
Brooklyn, accent the humanity
and dignity of those facing eco
nomic adversity,” says Corbus.
“Subjects without means endure,
persevere, and survive, despite the
odds. Poor children play and
laugh; they find spaces of joy. Her
children exist on their own terms
.... They are not merely ‘cute,’ as
they eke out their lives in the
midst of towering tenements and
poverty.”
Meyer herself describes one
assignment in “Into the Light.”
“... I volunteered to take stills at
Sydenham Hospital in Harlem for
a fund raising film.” The photos
were also used in promotional
materials for the hospital, an insti
tution that treated 60% of its
patients without charge. Meyer
also photographed the crowd at an
anti-lynching rally in Madison
Square, as well as scenes in
Spanish Harlem, the Hebrew
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Immigrant Aid Society, a
Jehovah’s Witness convention at
Yankee Stadium, and the first pub
licity stills for Pete Seeger’s band.
The Weavers. Such was the mis
sion of the photographers of The
Photo League.
The Photo League itself met its
unfortunate end at the hands of the
federal government, the House
Un-American Activities
Committee. The league was put on
a list of subversive groups.
“There was absolutely nothing
subversive going on,” Meyer
insists. “During the 1930s, some
of the members took pictures of
Communist rallies and sympa
thized with their cause. At the
time, they were one of the few
groups that helped people find
food, shelter, and protection.
“But there was never any pros
elytizing or influencing the rest of
us. All anyone ever insisted on
was meaningful photography.
“[But] it got to be too much.
People were being blacklisted.
There were photographers who
couldn’t get passports to work
overseas. Little by little, [The
Photo League] dissolved.
“It’s tragic, because there’s
never been another organization
like it.”
After the demise of The Photo
League, Sonia started a family and
continued her photography,
though not professionally. That
unique time in her life was over, or
at least she thought so. Fast for
ward to 1978, when an exhibit,
“This Was The Photo League,”
was opened at the International
Center of Photography. Three of
Meyer’s photos were included.
After that, there was no serious
attention paid to Meyer’s photos
until she moved here in 2002. By a
happy coincidence, Charlotte is
home to a historian of The Photo
League, the aforementioned Lili
Corbus. Once Corbus and Meyer
found one another, Meyer’s photo
graphs were once again brought
out “into the light.” Corbus
assigned a student of hers,
Amanda Connolly, to assist Meyer
in archiving Meyer’s work. Her
son, Joe Meyer, was a devoted
publicist for her work.
In 2007, Hodges Taylor Gallery
featured Meyer’s work in an
Photo taken outside Hebrew Immigrant
Aid Society. Reprinted courtesy of
Hodges Taylor Gallery and Sonia
Handelman Meyer
exhibit titled “Into the Light.”
Some of Meyer’s work can still be
viewed at the gallery at 401 N.
Tryon St., from 1-7 PM, and at
their new location, 118 E.
Kingston Ave. Call 704-334-3799
for more information.
A recent exhibit of The Photo
League, including three of
Meyer’s photographs, was seen at
the Jewish Museum in New York
City. This exhibit, “The Radical
Camera: New York’s Photo
League, 1936-1951,” is traveling
this year to Columbus, OH, San
Francisco, and West Palm Beach,
FL. “After so many years of being
in the shadows, you can imagine
my pleasure ... to have my photo
graphs out of the boxes and onto
the walls where they can be seen,
thought about, and enjoyed,” says
Meyer.
The impact of the exhibit was
amazing, she says. In NY, the
exhibition received rave reviews.
“And my daughter and grandchil
dren were struck dumb when they
entered the museum in Columbus.
They had no idea that the work I
had done had been so important.”
“We’re so fortunate to have this
treasure living among us in
Charlotte,” says Meyer’s friend,
Sheila Kasten.
For now Meyer is content to
relax in her retirement years. She
has traveled to the exhibits in New
York and Columbus and is still
debating whether to attend the one
in San Francisco. But for the rest
of us, her photos can be seen on
occasion by appointment at
Hodges Taylor Gallery’s two loca
tions (704-334-3799), in the sev
eral catalogues published in con
junction with her major exhibits,
and on her website, www.sonia-
handelmanmeyer.com. ^
Sonia reviews her photographs
for the Sydenham Hospital
fundraiser in the mid-1940s.
Sonia today in her apart
ment with one of her more
iconic photographs. \
Photo courtesy The Charlotte Jewish News.