Arthur Griffin
November 15 – January 18, 2011
Opening reception: Nov. 16, 7:30 - 8:30
- © Arthur Griffin
As an accomplished photojournalist, Arthur Griffin was a storyteller who captured universal experiences and emotions in his photographs.
A Singular Vision, an exhibit focusing solely on Griffin’s work as a photojournalist, is on display at The Griffin Museum at The Cambridge Homes in Cambridge, MA, November 15 through January 18. An opening reception is November 16.
Griffin, founder of the museum in 1992, had a more than 60-year career as a photojournalist. Originally trained as an illustrator, he picked up his first camera – a second-hand Brownie – in 1929, igniting a lifetime passion for photography.
By the mid-1930s, Griffin was the exclusive photographer for the new Boston Globe Rotogravure Magazine and the New England photojournalist for Life and Time magazines. He went on to become a pioneer in the use of color film and provided the first color photographs to appear in the Saturday Evening Post, a two-page layout on New England.
During the golden age of photojournalism, the 1930s to the 1950s, Griffin worked with legends like Alfred Eisenstadt and Gordon Parks, covering pivotal events and telling the stories with their photos. They captured everything from street scenes to fashion, sports to celebrities, everyday life to war. Griffin’s assignments ranged from tragedies such as the hurricane of 1938, to appearances by luminaries such as Bette Davis, to the Brockton Fair, and swimmers at Revere Beach.
Griffin, who became known as New England’s photographer laureate, died in 2001 at age 97.
“While I never had the privilege of knowing Arthur Griffin, he had an impeccable sense for composition with a playful, kinetic quality that I have learned was a reflection of his personality,” says Paula Tognarelli, executive director of the Griffin Museum of Photography. “A Singular Vision brings together some of Griffin’s finest street photographs, sports photographs, and portraits taken while on assignment.”