Campus Community
Posted: Thursday, October 15, 2009Burchfield Penney Celebrates Milton Rogovin’s 100th Birthday
In honor of the upcoming 100th birthday of Milton Rogovin, famed social documentary photographer, the Burchfield Penney Art Center at Buffalo State College will present a two-day symposium on his pictures and poetry October 24 and 25. Rogovin will be present at all events, which are free and open to the public.
Melanie Anne Herzog, professor of art history at Edgewood College in Madison, Wisconsin, will discuss Rogovin’s life and photography on Saturday, October 24, at 1:00 p.m. Herzog is the author of Milton Rogovin: The Making of a Social Documentary Photographer.
A new documentary titled Picture Man: The Poetry of Photographer Milton Rogovin will immediately follow the discussion. The 20-minute film features Rogovin reading poetry he wrote to complement his photographs. A birthday celebration takes place afterward. Rogovin will also sign copies of his new book, Milton Rogovin: The Lens & The Pen: Photographs & Poetry.
On Sunday, October 25, at 2:00 p.m., Eric Gansworth, a member of the Onondaga Nation and professor of English and Lowery Writer-in-Residence at Canisius College, will read selections of From the Western Door to the Lower West Side, a new book that pairs original poetry with Rogovin’s photographs. A celebration will follow the reading. Gansworth and Rogovin will also sign copies of the book.
Rogovin, who will turn 100 in December, has lived in Buffalo most of his adult life. Many of his works are on display in the Burchfield Penney Art Center and feature images of the poor and working class of Buffalo’s East Side and Lower West Side, Appalachia, Mexico, Chile, and other countries. Rogovin’s photographs also hang in the Library of Congress, the J. Paul Getty Museum, the University of Arizona’s Center for Creative Photography, and other institutions around the world.
Buffalo State honored his wife of 61 years, Anne Rogovin, ’40, ’62, with the Distinguished Alumnus Award shortly before her death in 2003. A collection of her teaching materials and papers is available in the E. H. Butler Library.
