“If you detect a Southern accent in this issue,” reads a
memo in the June 1943 issue of Photo Notes,
“it’s probably the Editor’s, Rosalie Gwathmey.” Born and raised in Charlotte, North
Carolina, Gwathmey moved to New York City and joined the Photo League in 1942,
but returned to Charlotte each summer. Gwathmey, like other League members,
sought out people and places beyond the city, bringing a greater diversity of
images and experiences to the organization. The Photo League’s blacklisting and
the regular FBI surveillance of her family devastated Gwathmey, prompting her to
quit photography and destroy her negatives in 1955.