ARTHUR LAVINE • 1922-2016t

THE SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE I WEDNESDAY • JULY 13, 2016

 ARTHUR LAVINE • 1922-2016

RENOWNED PHOTOGRAPHER CAPTURED HUMANITY

BY MARCIA MANNA

Whether it's the tense emotion in the faces of voters packed into Times Square, the resignation in the eyes of an impoverished

African American mother or the artistic murals decorating San Diego's Chicano Park, Arthur Lavine's photographs speak to individual truths and to collective humanity.

Two of his images are part of the Museum of Photographic Arts permanent collection in Balboa Park, ("Election Night, Times Square, New York City, November 1952" and "Rockefeller Center at Christmas, New York City, Winter, 1950") and show-cased through Oct. 2 in the exhibit "Defying Darkness: Photography at Night."

  

"He was not only a great photographer, he was a kind person with a generous spirit," said MOPA executive di-rector Deborah Klochko. "It was bittersweet that my last interaction with him was at our opening for 'Defying Darkness.' He felt passionately about his work, and his images are timeless. That's a wonderful gift."

  

Mr. Lavine's work also is included in the permanent collections of The International Center of Photography in New York City, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

His most well-known photograph, “Working Hands, Bath, Maine, 1947," was included in the 1955 exhibit "The Family of Man" at New York's Museum of Modern Art.

Curated by renowned photographer Edward Steichen, the exhibit focused on the common themes that connect people and cultures around the world. It then toured internationally for eight years and the published catalog, which is still in print, sold millions of copies.

 Mr. Lavine moved to San Diego with his wife, Rhoda, in 1992.

"I was very familiar with "The Family of Man" exhibition," said Arthur Oil-man, MOPA's founding director and currently a San Diego State University art professor and board chairman for the Foundation for  MOPA.

In the 1990s, when Oilman was MOPA's director, Mr. Lavine paid him a visit.

"He was a gentle, sweet guy with an ingratiating sensibility, and ultimately, I wanted some works for the collection," Oilman recalled. "I put him in group shows, and in 2007, he had a solo exhibition titled, 'Arthur Lavine: Peripatetic

Pleasures & Meditations.' If you look at his pictures, there is a great positivity about humanity. He's looking for moments that were indicative of the way the human species should conduct itself."

Arthur Eli Lavine was born Dec. 20, 1922, in Trenton, N.J., the son of Barney and Helen Lavine. A younger sister, Audrey, an artist, died in 1982.

 Mr. Lavine studied drama at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, hoping to become a cinematographer.

But World War II interrupted his education, and Mr. Lavine was drafted into the Army. He served as a non-combat photographer and eventually became the supervisor of the Army Signal Corps photo laboratory in New Caledonia.

After the war, Mr. Lavine moved to New York. During the 1950s, the city was a hub for creative photo-journalism, and as a free-lancer, Mr. Lavine was in demand. He became a member of the American Society of Magazine Photographers (now Media Photographers), serving in some official capacities, and studied with camera greats Alexey Brodovitch and Lisette Model.

30 magazines including Glamour, Fortune, Look, Collier's, Newsweek, Modern Photography and The New York Times Magazine.

Western Electric, the manufacturing arm of the Bell Telephone system, hired Mr. Lavine in 1956 to photograph people and products across the country.

The experience allowed him to capture America's vast diversity.

Mr. Lavine then managed the photography department at Chase Manhattan Bank, where he worked for more than two decades, providing images for a wide range of publications and events before retiring.

"He was incredibly enthusiastic, and I think that was useful in the sense that he wasn't intimidating to the people he photographed,"

Oilman added. "You could not help but like him and he was more interested in what you had to say rather than what he had to say. He worked in the tradition of  the street photographer, one who walked the streets looking for resonance."

Survivors include his wife of 54 years, Rhoda, sons Marc Lavine of Sunnyvale, Bruce Lavine of Tiburon, and three grandchildren.

Mr. Lavine was buried July 3 in Trenton, N.J. A celebration of life is planned at

10:30 a.m. July 24 at Ner Tamid Synagogue in Poway.