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The S K Josefsberg Studio
is pleased to present the work of New York photographer Vivian
Cherry, on view at the gallery July 18 – August 30, 2003.
Vivian Cherry was born in New York City in 1920. She was a
professional dancer on Broadway until a knee injury forced her
to make a career change. She landed a job working as a
darkroom technician for Underwood & Underwood studio. At that
time the studio was a prominent photo service for news
agencies and it was there that Cherry developed her
exceptional printing techniques.
Her darkroom job inspired her to explore photography as an
image maker. She joined the famed Photo League, an
organization formed by professional photographers in the
1930s. Aside from teaching the medium, the League was
politically and socially conscientious and committed to
promoting documentary photography. (Historic members of the
Photo League include Paul Strand, W. Eugene Smith and Max Yavno.) Through the organization, Cherry met and became a
pupil of Sid Grossman and Fons Ianella. Cherry blossomed under
their tutelage and was soon selling her photographic essays to
Life magazine, Look, Popular Photography, Sports Illustrated
and Redbook.
 Vivian Cherry has made her living as a professional
photographer for over fifty years. In that time she
photographed New York extensively, including the demolition of
the Third Avenue El; local scenes of Harlem, the Garment
District and the Lower East Side; and work on various film
documentaries. Her work has taken her to the southern reaches
of the United States, England and Mexico.
In the summer of 2000 Ms. Cherry’s work finally achieved well
deserved recognition—the Brooklyn Museum of Art mounted
"Vivian Cherry: Working Street Photographer, 1940s-60s."
This exhibition of Vivian Cherry’s photographs includes her
classic images from the 1940s through the 1950s. Ms. Cherry
still lives and actively photographs in New York.
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