Words on Pictures

In addition to photographing for Roy Stryker, many photographers of the FSA also knew that Romana Javitz was always looking for good subject-related photographs. This image came to the Picture Collection in 1938.  Gambling -- Cards. Louisiana Poker Game. 1938. by Russell Lee. Farm Security Administration files, NYPL Picture Collection. #11.1938. #documentaryphotography #gambling #Louisiana #RomanaJavitz #NYPL #WordsonPictures

  Andy Warhol and the NYPL Picture Collection ~~~    Andy Warhol's reputation as the consummate appropriator of visual culture is well established, but what is often overlooked is how deeply this practice of appropriation was tied to the infrastructure that made it possible- namely the New York Public Library's Picture Collection . This massive visual archive, open to artists, illustrators, designers and the general public served as a wellspring of imagery ready to be borrowed copied, or transformed. If Warhol's genius was in recognizing the artistic and commercial potential of appropriation, then perhaps the true progenitor of Pop Art was not Andy Warhol himself but the institutional collection that allowed him to reframe the visual language of consumer culture. The NYPL Picture Collection, with its democratic access to visual media, may have been the hidden engine that powered not only Warhol's artistic process but others as well, including fellow users  Robert Rau...

  I am honored to announce that the electronic edition of the Archives of American Art Journal’s Spring 2025 issue containing “Pictorially Yours”: The Correspondence of Joseph Cornell and Romana Javitz, is now at the University of Chicago Press. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/735900 Written by myself and Diana Kamin, the essay explores the influence of visionary librarian Romana Javitz on the work of artist Joseph Cornell. Javitz was superintendent of the New York Public Library’s Picture Collection, a comprehensive image repository used by working artists and designers, from 1928 to 1968. Cornell, who is most well-known for his surrealist box constructions and collages, was a long-time user of the Picture Collection and a close confidant and admirer of Javitz. The essay draws on correspondence from the Cornell papers at the Archives of American Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Cornell Study Center, and the privately held Javitz estate, as ...

  The Dual Legacy of Romana Javitz: Pictorial Documentation and Artistic Collaboration photograph by Trude Fleischmann. ca. 1942. Private Collection. Romana Javitz’s tenure as head of the New York Public Library’s Picture Collection marked a pivotal moment in the history of visual archives. By promoting images as tools for research and documentation, she redefined their role within public libraries, challenging the traditional view that confined them to art alone. Through her efforts, the Picture Collection became a critical resource for artists, anthropologists, designers, and writers, fostering both practical and creative uses of visual material.   Pictures as Documents Javitz’s approach to the Picture Collection was shaped by her recognition of images as cultural and historical documents. During her travels in Europe, she observed how state organizations systematically documented folk traditions and everyday life through visual media. Inspired by these practices, Javitz exp...

  Dorothea Lange's American Country Woman series and the NYPL Picture Collection  In 1964, while working on her retrospective exhibition for the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Dorothea Lange contacted Javitz about placing what became three sets of photographs of her work in the Picture Collection files: A portfolio of what Lange called The American Country Woman ; another a series on the Amana Society of Iowa, made while on a 1941 Guggenheim grant; and a third group a selection of over 200 exhibition prints and working proofs presented as a gift.   Lange understood the mission of the Picture Collection and wanted her legacy of photo-documentation to be a permanent part of it. Lange wrote to Javitz in 1965 about the American Country Woman series:  “There are about sixteen personages in the box and in many cases as accompaniment to the Women is a photograph of where she lives, her habitation. I have worked on these photographs for years, on and off, and they ar...

"Identification marks on wings of army pigeon"  The New York Public Library Digital Collections . 1918. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/18f36040-c2f6-0138-c9f3-0b13222c6397 Below is an extended excerpt from Javitz's speech, entitled Words on Pictures , given at the  Massachusetts Library Association, Boston, Massachusetts, on January 28, 1943.   At the peak of her career, Javitz encapsulates her far reaching and prescient vision into the use and misuse of pictures in everyday society. Much of it still applies today. The photographs following are intended to show examples of pictures reflecting the subjects discussed.  ~~~      "The mounting flood of pictures is permeating all of our lives, and its impact leaves deep impression on our minds. This unexploited pool of power can be tapped to produce ideas, stimulate processes of thinking and provoke action...       These pictures are not art, they are not pictur...