Biography

The American photographer Aaron Siskind worked as an English teacher in New York before setting up a branch of the Photo League, called the Feature Group, in 1936. The group organised a project to photograph Harlem street life; Siskind's 'Harlem Document' photographs resulted from this. His aim was to produce a sociological study in order to improve conditions for the residents of the area. However, in the early 1940s Siskind distanced himself from the Feature Group and adopted surrealist techniques in his work, producing abstract still lifes of everyday objects, such as quayside equipment and debris from the beach.