As the daughter of silent film actress Mary Ruby, Ruth Orkin grew up behind the cameras in Hollywood and began taking photographs at the tender age of 10 after receiving her first camera, a 39-cent Univex.
She picked up a copy of Photography for Fun, a 25-cent booklet which offered a snappy chapter on “How to Learn Photography.” Among the six tips was: “Get some more books on photography”
As a teen, she became entranced by the exotic tales in travel writer Richard Halliburton’s book, The Royal Road to Romance, which inspired her to plan an expedition of her own. (I have several of his books)
A two-week bicycle trip around San Francisco that she took, at 16, became the precursor to a four-month cross-country solo adventure the next summer, with the goal of visiting the 1939 World’s Fair in New York.
She briefly attended Los Angeles City College to pursue photojournalism, but decided to instead become the first messenger at MGM Studios in 1941 with the dream of one day becoming a cinematographer, in an attempt to gain experience as a filmmaker. “As a messenger being sent here and there I saw a lot more of the studio operation than almost any other employee”
But things didn’t go quite as she hoped. After learning Cinematographer’s Guild, then known as IATSE Camera Local 659, did not allow female members, Orkin left and joined the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps at 20 in the hopes of gaining filmmaking skills in 1941 after reading promotional materials promising training in the field. That training never occurred, she ended up in Monticello, Arkansas, and she was discharged in 1943.
In 1943, Orkin moved to New York City to pursue a career as a photographer, working mostly in nightclubs until she received her first assignment from The New York Times to photograph Leonard Bernstein in 1945.
1951, Florence Italy, a posed photo, as the woman was a model that Orkin met in her hotel, and then worked with a lot to make incredible photos, like the famous "American Girl In Italy", for Cosmopolitan Magazine. Nina Lee Craig nee Jinx Allen
Her cover photo for Ladies Home Journal in 1950 of a New York City housewife, taken at a fruit and vegetable stand finally made her famous, and it also won the competition set by the editor of Ladies’ Home Journal to find an image that reflected the more liberated post-war American woman.
New York housewife Geraldine Dent stands outside a greengrocer with a bursting bag of fruit in one arm. She seems animated, caught in conversation. There’s a pleasing echo of red, from her stylish beret, to her lipstick and scarf, to the half eaten-strawberry she clasps in her hand.
‘I had not only just photographed a beautiful girl who was not a model, but she was doing something that all his female readers could identify with.’
It was the first time a 35mm color slide had been used on the front of such a magazine and
“I proposed a series of covers which would feature women who had never modelled. Most of the photos we received were imitations of precisely the kinds of covers we wanted to get away from, however photographer Ruth Orkin, came through with a set of 35-mm transparencies of a New York City housewife named Geraldine Dent. We used it for the March 1950 issue, and it sold out—in fact, the Journal’s circulation hit an all-time high. ( the issue sold out its 4 million print run) I think it was the first time a 35-mm color slide was used on the cover of one of the “slicks.” Picture Editor of The Ladies’ Home Journal – John G. Morris.
In the early 1950s Orkin was given assignments in Israel and Italy. She worked with celebrities on set: Lucille Ball, Doris Say, Danny Kaye, Fred McMurray, Spencer Tracy, Orson Welles, Einstein, Hitchcock, Brando and Bacall. https://www.orkinphoto.com/photographs/celebrities/
this post was a very enjoyable 2 hours
I have already forgotten that I'd posted 2 of her very cool photos, as a set because of the view from her apartment of 88th street: https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2022/03/ruth-orkin-man-in-rain-1952-ruth-orkin.html but when I posted them, it was appreciation for her photography, I had no idea about her bike ride, and her FAMOUS American Girl In Italy photo - which I've admired, but didn't know anything of the photographer, of course, until now.
I hope you like this complete look at someone, their journey though a life, and a career as a photographer. I wish more people's lives were in simple biographies, so we might understand how life treats others, the events that people take part in, and what they accomplish and enjoy.
Great history. Thanks
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