WELLESLEY, MASS.- The Davis Museum at Wellesley College presents Bread and Roses: The Social Documentary of Milton and Anne Rogovin, an exhibition of 37 black-and-white photographs that portray underserved communities and laborers from around the world. Milton Rogovin, together with his wife Anne, expanded the potential of social documentary photography in the United States to reach and affect audiences, as well as the subjects in their pictures. The exhibition, on view in the Robert and Claire Freedman Lober Viewing Alcove, runs from February 7 through June 19, 2019.

“Milton Rogovin created his own version of the social documentary genre, particularly with regard to his sitters, who had a deep appreciation for his work. Many families recall how Milton and Anne would spend time getting to know them and return to re-photograph them years later,” says Carrie Cushman, Linda Wyatt Gruber ’66 Curatorial Fellow in Photography and curator of the exhibition. “The purpose of social documentary photography is to affect viewers by generating empathy that can lead to social change. The Rogovins used the genre to fight for social equity, but the images also insist on the dignity of their subjects.”

In the midst of the Cold War-era crackdown on the Communist Party and other “Un-American” activities, the Buffalo, New York-based optometrist, social activist, and self-taught photographer Milton Rogovin (1909-2011) was labeled the “Top Red in Buffalo.” In 1958, after being ostracized and silenced by his local community, Rogovin turned to photography to continue his cause for a more just and equal society, a commitment echoed by the political slogan, “Bread and Roses.” Rogovin would photograph people at their place of work in mines and factories, and later at home with their families. This juxtaposition conveys a message that the laborers of the world should not be defined by what they do for work; they are people just like anyone else.

Anne Rogovin was pivotal to the photographic series, as she worked in close liaison with the sitters and kept track of their whereabouts. It was Anne’s idea to revisit people that Milton had photographed in Buffalo’s Lower West Side years after the first pictures were taken. Moreover, Anne supported their family of five on a teaching salary when Milton closed his optometry practice to pursue photography full time in the 1970s.

The exhibition includes 37 photographs: 33 by Rogovin and work from four other photographers known for their social documentary: Lewis Hine, Dorothea Lange, Paul Strand, and Margaret Bourke-White. There are several photographs taken on the Lower West Side of Buffalo, New York, as well as many from the Rogovins’ international travels to Chile and mining communities in Zimbabwe, Scotland, Cuba, and Mexico.

The works in the exhibition were drawn from a gift of 260 photographs donated by Wellesley College alumna Denise Jarvinen ’83 and her husband Pierre Cremieux in 2016.