{{short description|American photographer and filmmaker (1921–1985)}} {{Use mdy dates |date=May 2026}} {{Infobox artist | name = Ruth Orkin | image = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date|1921|09|03|mf=y}} | birth_place = Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1985|01|16|1921|09|3}} | death_place = New York City, New York, U.S. | field = Photography, filmmaking | training = Photojournalism at Los Angeles City College | movement = | works = ''American Girl in Italy'' (1951), ''Little Fugitive'' (1952), ''Lovers and Lollipops'' (1955) | influenced = | spouse = Morris Engel | patrons = | awards = | website = {{URL|orkinphoto.com}} (Ruth Orkin Photo Archive)
}} '''Ruth Orkin''' (September 3, 1921 – January 16, 1985) was an American photographer, photojournalist, and filmmaker, with ties to New York City and Hollywood. Known for her photograph ''An American Girl in Italy'' (1951), she photographed many celebrities and personalities including Lauren Bacall, Doris Day, Ava Gardner, Tennessee Williams, Marlon Brando, and Alfred Hitchcock.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url = http://orkinphoto.com/career|title = Career|website = Ruth Orkin Photo Archive|language = en-US|access-date = 2016-03-05}}</ref>
==Early life, education and early career== thumb|Orkin's ''An American Girl in Italy'' Ruth Orkin was born on September 3, 1921, in Boston, Massachusetts, to Mary Ruby and Samuel Orkin.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.americanheritage.com/sam-orkins-navy | title=Sam Orkin's Navy }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/samuel-orkin-boat-ship-battleship-526782494 | title=Samuel Orkin Boat Ship Battleship 1914 Catalog reproduction | #526782494 }}</ref><ref name="Biography">{{Cite web|url = https://www.orkinphoto.com/biography/|title = Biography|website = Ruth Orkin Photo Archive|language = en-US|access-date = 2016-03-05}}</ref> Ruth grew up in Hollywood, due to her mother's career as a silent film actress.<ref name="pop">{{cite journal |last1=Fondiller |first1=Henry V. |title=Ruth Orkin, 1921-1985 |journal=Popular Photography |date=May 1985 |volume=92 |issue=5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=omdECZFSkywC&dq=ruth+orkin&pg=PA156 |page=156 |access-date=24 May 2023}}</ref> In 1931, she received her first camera, a 39-cent Univex, and soon began experimenting by taking photographs of her friends and teachers at school.<ref>{{Cite web|url = http://www.orkinphoto.com/biography|title = Biography|website = Ruth Orkin Photo Archive|language = en-US|access-date = 2016-03-05}}</ref> At the age of 17, she decided to bike across America, beginning in Los Angeles, and ending in New York City for the 1939 World's Fair. She completed the trip in three weeks' time, taking photographs along the way.<ref>{{Cite web|url = https://www.orkinphoto.com/2015/11/04/style-of-sport-features-ruths-bicycle-trip-from-1939/|title = Style of Sport features Ruth's Bicycle Trip from 1939|website = www.orkinphoto.com| date=4 November 2015 |access-date = 2016-03-05}}</ref>
She briefly attended Los Angeles City College for photojournalism in 1940,<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url = http://www.anb.org/articles/16/16-03081.html?|title = Ruth Orkin|last = Svendsgaard|first = Lisabeth G.|date = n.d.|website = American National Biography Online|access-date = 5 March 2016}}</ref> prior to becoming the first messenger girl at MGM Studios in 1941, citing a desire to become a cinematographer. She left the position after discovering the union's discriminatory practices that did not allow female members.<ref name=":2">{{Cite news|url = https://www.nytimes.com/1985/01/17/nyregion/ruth-orkin-photojournalist-and-film-maker-dead-at-63.html|title = RUTH ORKIN, PHOTOJOURNALIST AND FILM MAKER, DEAD AT 63|last = Grundberg|first = Andy|date = 1985-01-17|newspaper = The New York Times|issn = 0362-4331|access-date = 2016-03-05}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url = http://www.pwponline.org/blog/2012/03/27/30-by-30-patt-blue-ruth-orkin/|title = 30 By 30: Patt Blue / Ruth Orkin {{!}} Professional Women Photographers Blog|website = www.pwponline.org| date=28 March 2012 |access-date = 2016-03-05}}</ref> She joined the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps during World War II, in 1941<ref name="pop" /> in an attempt to gain filmmaking skills, as advertisements promoting the group promised. The attempt was not fruitful, however, and she was discharged in 1943 without any filmmaking training.<ref name=":1" />
==Career== ===Photography=== In 1943, Orkin moved to New York City in pursuit of a career as a freelance photojournalist. She began working as a nightclub photographer. She photographed Leonard Bernstein in 1947 for ''The New York Times''.<ref name=":3" /> Shortly after, her freelance career grew as she traveled internationally on assignments and contributed photographs to ''Life'', ''Look'',<ref>{{cite book |last1=Koszarski |first1=Richard |title="Keep 'Em in the East": Kazan, Kubrick, and the Postwar New York Film Renaissance |date=2021 |publisher=Columbia University Press |location=New York |page=336}}</ref> ''Ladies' Home Journal,'' and others.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|title = The Oxford Dictionary of American Art and Artists|last = Morgan|first = Ann Lee|publisher = Oxford University Press|year = 2007|isbn = 9780195373219|url-access = registration|url = https://archive.org/details/oxforddictionary00morg}}</ref> Orkin is credited with breaking into a heavily male field.
Orkin's most-celebrated image is ''An American Girl in Italy'' (1951).<ref name=":3" /> The subject of the later-iconic photograph was 23-year-old Ninalee Craig (known then as Jinx Allen).<ref name="pop" /> The photograph was part of a series originally titled "Don't Be Afraid to Travel Alone."<ref name="Biography"/> The image depicted Craig as a young woman confidently walking past a group of ogling Italian men in Florence. The photo is generally recognized as having been staged. <ref>{{Cite news |last=Ackerberg |first=Erica |date=2024-03-22 |title=She Started With a 39-Cent Camera. She Ended Up in Magazines. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/22/books/review/ruth-orkin-women-photo-book.html |access-date=2024-08-13 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> However, in recent articles written about the pair, Craig claims that the image was not staged, and was one of many taken throughout the day, aiming to show the fun of traveling alone.<ref name=Coffey2011>{{cite web|last=Coffey|first=LT|title=At 83, subject of 'American Girl in Italy' photo speaks out|publisher=MSNBC|location=New York|date=August 18, 2011|url=http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/44182286/ns/today-today_people/t/subject-american-girl-italy-photo-speaks-out/#.Tk1ZZGOHdBk|access-date=August 19, 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110926184602/http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/44182286/ns/today-today_people/t/subject-american-girl-italy-photo-speaks-out#.Tk1ZZGOHdBk|archive-date=September 26, 2011}}</ref><ref name=Krumboltz2011>{{cite web|last=Krumboltz|first=M|title=American girl in Italy: 60 years later|work=The Lookout|date=August 19, 2011|url=https://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/american-girl-italy-60-years-later-221005987.html|access-date=August 19, 2011}}</ref>thumb|Attendees of a Ruth Orkin Retrospective in 2012
===Filmmaking=== In 1952, Orkin married photographer, filmmaker and fellow Photo League member Morris Engel. Orkin and Engel collaborated on two major independent feature films, ''Little Fugitive'' (1953) and ''Lovers and Lollipops'' (1956).<ref name=":2" />
===Return to photography=== After the success of the two films, Orkin returned to photography, taking color shots of Central Park as seen through her apartment window. The resulting photographs were collected in two books, ''A World Through My Window'' (1978) and ''More Pictures from My Window'' (1983).<ref name=":2" />
===Teaching=== Orkin taught photography at the School of Visual Arts in the late 1970s, and at the International Center of Photography in 1980.<ref name=":0" />
=== Awards === Source:<ref name="Career">{{Cite web|url = http://www.orkinphoto.com/career/|title = Career|website = Ruth Orkin Photo Archive|language = en-US|access-date = 2016-03-05}}</ref>
==== Photography ==== * 3rd-Prize Winner, LIFE Magazine's Young Photographer's Contest, 1951 * One of Top-Ten Women Photographers in the U.S., Professional Photographers of America, 1959 * 1st-Annual Manhattan Cultural Award, Photography, 1980
==== Other ==== * Certificate of Merit, Municipal Art Society of New York, 1984
===Exhibits=== * Ruth Orkin: Retrospective. Nikon House, New York City<ref>{{Cite web |last=Andrews |first=Blake |date=2024-09-20 |title=Ruth Orkin, Bike Trip USA, 1939 |url=https://collectordaily.com/ruth-orkin-bike-trip-usa-1939/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260529155645/https://collectordaily.com/ruth-orkin-bike-trip-usa-1939/ |archive-date=2026-05-29 |access-date=2026-05-29 |website=Collector Daily |language=en}}</ref> * Ruth Orkin: Retrospective. Lumiere Brothers Center of Photography, Moscow. January, 2012 [https://hauteliving.com/2012/01/two-western-photography-exhibits-on-display-at-the-red-october/243150/#] * Ruth Orkin + Morris Engel, Fondazione Stelline, Milan, June 26–August 3, 2014 [https://stelline.it/it/la-fondazione/mostre/archivio-mostre/ruth-orkin-morris-engel.html] * Retrospective, Fotografiska, New York, 2021 [https://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/photography/features/continuity-of-purpose-a-photographic-legacy-from-ruth-orkin-to-her-daughter] * Ruth Orkin, Museo Civico di Bassano, Bassano del Grappa, Italy. 2022 [https://www.museibassano.it/en/exhibit/ruth-orkin-leggenda-della-fotografia] * Mostra Ruth Orkin, una nuova scoperta. Musei Reali, Turin. March 17 – July 16, 2023 [https://museireali.beniculturali.it/mostra-ruth-orkin-una-nuova-scoperta/] * Ruth Orkin: Women on the Move, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C. December 12, 2025 – March 29, 2026<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ruth Orkin: Women on the Move {{!}} Exhibition |url=https://nmwa.org/exhibitions/ruth-orkin-women-on-the-move/ |access-date=2026-03-23 | publisher = National Museum of Women in the Arts |language=en-US}}</ref>
===Bibliography, filmography=== ====Books==== *''The World Through My Window'', Harper and Row, 1978 {{ISBN|9780060132934}} *''A Photo Journal: Ruth Orkin'', The Viking Press, 1981 {{ISBN|9780670552528}} *''More Pictures from My Window'', Rizzoli, 1983 {{ISBN|9780847804764}}
====Films==== * ''Little Fugitive'', 1953 ** editor, co-director and co-writer ** Academy Award nomination, Best Original Screenplay ** Silver Lion, Venice Film Festival * ''Lovers and Lollipops'', 1956 ** editor, co-producer, co-director and co-writer ** The film served as inspiration for Carol (film), according to Director Todd Haynes<ref>{{Cite web|url = http://www.ssninsider.com/awards-feature-director-todd-haynes-finds-inspiration-for-carol-in-obscure-docudramas-lost-language-of-femininity/|title = Awards Feature: Director Todd Haynes Finds Inspiration for 'Carol' in Obscure Docudrama's "Lost Language of Femininity" {{!}} SSN Insider|website = www.ssninsider.com|access-date = 2016-03-05}}</ref>
==Personal life== She and husband, Morris Engel, had two children: Andy and Mary Engel. After a long, private battle with cancer, Orkin died of the disease at her New York City apartment on January 16, 1985.<ref name=":2" />
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * [http://www.orkinphoto.com Official website] * [http://www.orkinphotostore.com Official Store] * {{IMDb name}} * [https://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/nyhs/orkin/index.html The Ruth Orkin Photograph Collection at the New York Historical Society] * Orkin's photographs at [https://www.mptvimages.com/ MPTV Images].
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Orkin, Ruth}} Category:1921 births Category:1985 deaths Category:20th-century American Jews Category:20th-century American businesswomen Category:20th-century American screenwriters Category:20th-century American women educators Category:20th-century American women journalists Category:20th-century American women photographers Category:20th-century American women writers Category:20th-century people from California Category:20th-century people from Massachusetts Category:20th-century people from New York (state) Category:American women art educators Category:American women film directors Category:American women film editors Category:American women film producers Category:American women photojournalists Category:American women screenwriters Category:Artists from Hollywood, Los Angeles Category:Artists from Manhattan Category:Deaths from cancer in New York (state) Category:Film directors from Los Angeles Category:Film directors from Massachusetts Category:Film directors from New York City Category:Film producers from Los Angeles Category:Film producers from Massachusetts Category:Film producers from New York City Category:Jewish American academics Category:Jewish American journalists Category:Jewish American photographers Category:Jewish American screenwriters Category:Jews from California Category:Jews from Massachusetts Category:Jews from New York City Category:Journalists from Boston Category:Journalists from Los Angeles Category:Journalists from New York City Category:Los Angeles City College alumni Category:Mass media people from Hollywood, Los Angeles Category:Photographers from Boston Category:Photographers from Los Angeles Category:Photographers from New York City Category:Photography academics Category:School of Visual Arts faculty Category:Screenwriters from Los Angeles Category:Screenwriters from Massachusetts Category:Screenwriters from New York City Category:Writers from Hollywood, Los Angeles Category:Writers from Manhattan