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Lou Bernstein (born Judah Leon Bernstein; February 28, 1911 – August 2, 2005) was an American photographer and teacher. His career began during the Great Depression and the Photo League and ended shortly before he died.
After two years on the road, he returned to New York City, where he met Mildred Marder and married her a year later, in 1931. Needing to find a way of supporting himself and his wife, he began studying iron drafting and received a diploma on April 14, 1933, from The General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen of the City of New York. Because of the Depression, he was never able to find employment in this field. Instead, he began working in the Brooklyn shipyards, which he did for over ten years. In 1937, after the birth of their first child, Millie gave Lou his first camera, "an Argus A2 without a rangefinder" just to take pictures of their new daughter.
Unwilling to turn "professional," i.e., make his living from paid assignments, yet feeling the need to become more involved in the photographic community, Bernstein began working in the darkroom department at Peerless Camera, then one of the largest photographic supply emporiums in New York City. He worked there from 1945 to 1958 and later at Willoughby's (when the two competitive store merged) until his retirement in 1973. From his perch behind the counter, Bernstein got to meet hundreds of photographers, from rank beginners to notable photographers Edward Steichen, W. Eugene Smith, and Ernst Haas. His position gave him the opportunity to keep abreast of the latest technical developments and to pass on what he had learned. Customers came to him for service and advise, from what to buy to where to find a job in a photo lab. Without knowing it, Bernstein was laying the groundwork for his later career as a teacher and c.
Bernstein's decision not to accept photographic assignments kept him close to his family, within the confines of New York City. It meant that he could choose to photograph what interested him. However, it seriously limited the amount of time he could devote to his pursuit. In typical Bernstein fashion, he turned a negative into a positive: "The way I work, two or three days a week is enough. When I photograph, I give it everything I've got. I get excited and wrought-up. And I get pooped. Like I say, a couple of days a week – good solid days I mean – is usually all that I'm good for."
His approach never varied. He would find an area, a subject matter that interested him, and he would return to it almost obsessively for an inordinate amount of time. Over a period of time, he would get to know the place and the people involved, whether they were the marginalized men who lived at the Fulton Fish Market or the staff at the New York Aquarium. He would photograph for several hours, return home, and process his film. He would print and re-print his best images, constantly trying—even years later—to make the best possible photograph. His one-man show at The Queens Museum of Art in 1989, entitled "Coney Island 1943-1987," included photographs taken in this one small area of Brooklyn over a forty-year period. Bernstein stated that he first began photographing in the Aquarium at Coney Island in 1960; he kept returning there until after the year 2000—a project of over forty years in duration.Durniak, John, "The Dance of a Dolphin, Frozen Forever on Film", The New York Times, July 22, 1992 Over a lifetime a work, Bernstein created a series of projects, all taken in close proximity to where he lived."Legacy", http://www.loubernsteinlegacy.com, accessed September 27, 2013
Bernstein had benefited greatly from his participation in Sid Grossman's workshops and sought to emulate his teacher's approach. The first thing was for his students to enjoy themselves when they were out photographing.Klein, Mason. "Of Politics and Poetry: The Dilemma of the Photo League", Klein and Evans, The Radical Camera, p. 22 However, Bernstein made some important refinements to the workshop methodology. Students were expected to bring in their work for criticism. But whereas Grossman could be sarcastic and biting in his approach, ("Sid never told me what was good. He only told me what was bad...") Bernstein was always gentle. Any photograph, no matter how amateurish, was a "stepping stone" for something better. In addition, Bernstein encouraged his students to express their own opinions about each other's work—usually before he gave his own evaluation. His stated purpose was to encourage his students to encourage each other, rather than be in competition.Casden, Fred, "A Testimonial Tribute to a Mentor and a Friend", http://www.loubernsteinlegacy.com, accessed Sept. 27, 2013 By talking about other photographers' work, each student was developing his own critical facility—essential to his own development as a photographer. Just as Grossman continued to teach privately after he left The Photo League in 1949, so too, Bernstein conducted weekly sessions from his home for many years. In 1992, Bernstein estimated that he had worked with over 600 students.Bernstein and Garibaldi. appendix
In addition to the informal workshops he conducted, Bernstein also taught formally at various institutions. In 1971, when W. Eugene Smith took a sabbatical from his teaching position at Cooper Union, he recommended that Bernstein take his place. Smith had previously recommended him for a Guggenheim grant in a "Confidential Report on Candidate for Fellowship" from December 1969, as had Wynn Bullock in a letter dated November 17, 1966. The following year, Bernstein taught a similar class, "Creative Approach to Photography," at the Phoenix School for Art and Design."Artist Profile", http://www.loubernsteinlegacy.com, accessed Sept. 27, 2013 After he had spent years photographing at the New York Aquarium at Coney Island, he was asked to share some of what he had learned in a course entitled "Aquatic Awareness," which he conducted from 1980 to 1985. He also authored a column entitled "Critique" in the magazine Camera 35 from 1968 to 1973, which enabled him to reach a wider audience throughout the United States.
It was Cornell Capa, the ICP's executive director, who in the brochure for the exhibition described Bernstein as "the Walter Mitty of photography," and added that "This first retrospective of infectious optimism belongs to a man whose preserved memories are his treasures.""Lou Bernstein, A Retrospective Look", The International Center of Photography, 1981 In 1992, the same ICP honored him with a second exhibition, Five Decades of Photography.
By the time of his death, Bernstein's work had been shown in almost seventy exhibitions, and were part of the collections of, among other institutions, The Museum of Modern Art (New York), the University of Arizona, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas, the International Center of Photography (NYC), the Columbus Museum of Art (Ohio), the Jewish Museum (Manhattan)."Recognition", http://www.loubernsteinlegacy.com, accessed September 27, 2013
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