Sid Grossman
Woman at the 23rd Street IRT Station

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Images(2)

Artist Sid GrossmanAmerican, 1913–1955

CultureAmerican

Titles

Woman at the 23rd Street IRT Station
from the series Chelsea Document

Date1938–1939

PlaceNew York City, New York, United States

MediumGelatin silver print

DimensionsImage: 11 13/16 × 9 1/4 in. (30 × 23.5 cm)
Sheet: 11 13/16 × 9 1/4 in. (30 × 23.5 cm)

Credit LineGift of Miriam Grossman Cohen

Object number81.5

Not on view

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Department

Photography

Object Type

PHOTOGRAPHS

DescriptionLooking
displeased at Sid Grossman’s photographic intrusion, a woman stands against a
noisy background of signs, shops, and fire escapes in New York City’s Chelsea
neighborhood. In 1936 Grossman and Sol Libsohn cofounded the Photo League, and
in 1938 formed the Chelsea Document
group project. League “Groups” worked together photographing single-issue
subjects such as housing, labor, immigration, and war. Working with the Chelsea
Tenants League, an organization dedicated to improving living conditions,
Grossman and others photographed Chelsea from 1938 to 1940. Their photographs
documented its buildings and people, giving a detailed and nuanced sense of
everyday life in the neighborhood.
ProvenanceMiriam Grossman Cohen; given to MFAH, 1981.
Exhibition History"The 150th Anniversary of the Invention of Photography: Prague 1989," Manes Center of the Union of Czechoslovak Creative Artists, Prague, August 1–September 30, 1989.

"Sid Grossman/ Leon Levinstein," San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, January 15–March 31, 1991.

"A Hard, Merciless Light. The Worker-Photography Movement, 1926-1939," Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, April 5–August 22, 2011.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks

Inscribed in pencil, verso, bottom right: Chelsea NYC // Major neg. 7.1 // E

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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