Career

Books:
A World Through My Window, Harper and Row, 1978
A Photo Journal, The Viking Press, 1981
More Pictures From My Window, Rizzoli, 1983
Films:
LITTLE FUGITIVE, 1953
Editor, Co-director and Co-writer
Academy Award Nomination, Best Original Screenplay
Silver Lion, Venice Film Festival
LOVERS AND LOLLIPOPS, 1955
Editor, Co-producer, Co-director and Co-writer
Awards:
3rd Prize Winner, Life magazine's Young Photographer's Contest, 1951
Voted one of Top Ten Women Photographer's in the U.S., Professional Photographers of America 1959
1st Annual Manhattan Cultural Award, Photography, 1980
Certificate of Merit, Municipal Art Society of NY, 1984
Instructor:
School of Visual Arts, New York City, 1976-78
International Center of Photography, New York City, 1980
Chronology:
1921
Born September 3, in Boston, Massachusetts
1931
Receives first camera, 39 cent Univex
1935-39
Attends Beverly Hills, Eagle Rock H.S.
1939
Bicycle trip from LA to see 1939 World's Fair in NYC
1940
Attends LA City College for one year
1941
First messenger girl at MGM Studios
Joins Women's Army Auxiliary Corps
1943
Moves to New York, works as a nightclub photographer
1945
1st assignment for The NYTimes to shoot Leonard Bernstein
1945-52
Intensive freelance career for Life, Look, This Week et.al. 1946-50
Photographs classical musicians at Tanglewood Music Festival 1951
Goes to Israel on press junket with Israeli Philharmonic
In Florence, shoots her classic image American Girl in Italy
1952
Marries Morris Engel in New York City
1953
"Little Fugitive" nominated for Academy Award 1
1955
Makes second award-winning film "Lovers and Lollipops"
1959
Son Andy born, voted one of Top Ten Women Photographers
1961
Daughter Mary born
1965
Photography in the Fine Arts exhibit, Metropolitan Museum
1974
First retrospective at Nikon House in NYC
1976-78
Instructor, School of Visual Arts
1977
First exhibition at The Witkin Gallery
1978
"A World Through My Window", Harper and Row
1981
"A Photo Journal", Viking Studio Press; photo-autobiography 1983
"More Pictures From My Window", Rizzoli
1985
Dies January 16 in New York City
Solo Exhibitions:
1974
Nikon House, NY
1977
Witkin Gallery, NY, Enjay Gallery, Boston
1978
Milwaukee Ctr. of Photography, Milwaukee, Kiva Gallery, Boston
1979
University of Akron, Ohio, Afterimage Gallery, Dallas, Texas
1979
Rizzoli Gallery (thru 1985), NY
1980
Atlanta Gallery of Photography, Atlanta, Georgia
1981
Witkin Gallery, NY
1982
Douglas Elliot Gallery, San Francisco, Rizzoli Gallery, Costa Mesa,
1983
Equivalents Gallery, Seattle, Washington
1985
Witkin Gallery, NY
1990
Photo Gallery International, Tokyo, Japan
1994
Witkin Gallery, NY
1995
International Center of Photography, NY
Group Exhibitions:
1950
Young Photographers, Museum of Modern Art NY
1955
The Family of Man, Museum of Modern Art, NY
1964
The World and Its People, The World's Fair, NY
1965
Photography in the Fine Arts, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
1978
Photographic Crossroads: The Photo League, SUNY, New Paltz
1981
Manhattan Observed, NY Historical Society
1985
American Images, 1945-1980, Barbican Art Gallery, London
1985
Collecting New York: Recent Acquisitions, Museum of City of NY
1986
New York: The City and Its People, Working People's Cultural Palace, Beijing, China
1986
Cross Examinations, Mendocino Art Center, Mendocino, California
1987
Masters of Starlight, LA County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
1987
Diamonds are Forever: Artists and Writers on Baseball, NY State Museum, Albany 1988 Master Photographs from The Photography in the Fine Arts Exhibition, ICP, NY
1989
The Human Element: B/W Photography, Cal State, Long Beach
Articles (selected):
Boston Herald "Engel, Orkin forged path for indies"
—Paul Sherman 7/13/97
Chicago Sun-Times "Orkin-This Woman Has Eyes"
—David Elliott 12/16/79
Dallas Times Herald "The World Beats a Path to Ruth Orkin's Window"
—Bill Marvel 10/24/79
LA Weekly "The Films of Morris Engel with Ruth Orkin" 7/4/97
Los Angeles Times "On Sidewalks of New York: Another Era's Charm"
—Susan King 7/10/97
The Los Angeles Times, "We Are Not a Muse"
—Burt Prelutsky 8/28/77
The NY Times "Photographer Puts Her Career in Perspective"
—Nan Robertson 10/5/79
The NY Times "Candid or Contrived? The Making of a Classic"
—Shaun Considine 4/30/95
The NY Times "Beyond That Single, Famous Picture"
—Charles Hagen 6/2/95
Photo District News "Goldsmith and Orkin at ICP"
—Bret Senft 7/95
Popular Photography "Ruth Orkin: Gravure Portfolio"
—Nancy Stevens, 6/77
The Toronto Star "Out of the Picture: Bringing the Art of Ruth Orkin Back Into Focus"
—Susan Walker 6/3/95
Celebreties and Personalities photographed (1940's - 1950's)
ACTRESSES
Lauren Bacall
Lucille Ball
Eva Bartok
Anne Baxter
Shirley Booth
Leslie Caron
Katherine Cornell
Marion Davis
Doris Day
Irene Dunne
Nanette Fabray
Gracie Fields
Geraldine Fitzgerald
Joan Fontaine
Ava Gardner
Barbara Bell Geddes
Bonita Granville
Julie Harris
Dorothy McGuire
Debbie Reynolds
Marjorie Steel
Gene Tierney
Lana Turner
Ethel Waters
Teresa Wright
ACTORS
Fred Allen
Woody Allen
Humphrey Bogart
Marlon Brando
Montgomery Clift
Wally Cox
Gary Grant
Rex Harrison
Ronald Howard
Van Johnson
Danny Kaye
Burt Lancaster
Peter Lawford
Fred MacMurray
Fredric March
Robert Montgomery
David Niven
Donald O'Connor
Gerald O'Loughlin
Basil Rathbone
Red Skelton
Robert Taylor
Spencer Tracy
Orson Welles
DIRECTORS
Vittorio Di Sica
Alfred Hitchcock
Elia Kazan
Gutherie McClintoc
Joseph Mankiewicz
WRITERS
W.H. Auden
Ludwig Bemmelmans
John Canada
Carson McCullers
Tennessee Williams
OTHER
Mel Allen
Red Barber
Gerald Brockhurst
Albert Einstein
Henry Wallace
Special Events
Opening night of "Member of the Wedding"
On the set of "Streetcar Named Desire"
Set of "I Love Lucy"
Set of "Howdee Doody"
Arthur Rubinstein and family
Jackie Robinson and family
1960s
Woody Allen
Jimmy Breslin
Carol Channing
Kirk Douglas
Jane Jacobs
Paul O'Dwyer
Carly Simon
1980's
Judy Collins
COMPOSERS
Samuel Barber
Marc Blitzstein
Benjamin Britten
Aaron Copland
Ulysses Kaye
Darius Milhaud
William Schuman
Igor Stravinsky
Virgil Thompson
VIOLINISTS
Mischa Elman
Carol Glenn
Jascha Heifetz
Yehudi Menuhin
Nathan Milstein
Albert Spaulding
Isaac Stern
CONDUCTORS
Sir Thomas Beecham
Leonard Bernstein
Pierre Boulez
Sir Adrian Boult
Walter Hendl
Serge Koussevitzky
Edmund Kurtz
Lorin Maazel
Dimitri Mitropoulos
Pierre Monteux
Eugene Ormandy
Paul Paray
Fritz Reiner
Sigmund Romberg
Alexander Smallens
William Steinberg
Leopold Stokowski
PIANISTS
Claudio Arrau
Lukas Foss
Gary Graffman
Jose Iturbi
William Kappell
Oscar Levant
Eugene Liszt
Arthur Rubinstein
VOCALISTS
Marion Anderson
Carol Brice
Lotte Lehman
Ezio Pinza
Robert Rounseville
Eleanor Steber