Sonia Handelman Meyer
Polish-American photographer (1920–2022)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sonia Handelman Meyer (February 12, 1920 – September 11, 2022) was an American photographer, best known for her street photography as a member of the New York Photo League.
February 12, 1920
Sonia Handelman Meyer | |
|---|---|
| Born | Cecil Joan Weiner February 12, 1920 |
| Died | September 11, 2022 (aged 102) |
| Occupation | Photographer |
| Children | 2 |
Early life and education
Meyer was born in Lakewood Township, New Jersey, in 1920 to Harry and Francesca Handelman, who were Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe.[1][2][3] She studied English at Queens College and was a part of the school's first graduating class in 1941.[4]
Life and work
Meyer discovered photography in 1942 while she was a civilian worker at Fort Buchanan, Puerto Rico, for the U.S. Army Signal Corps.[5][6]
Returning to New York in the 1940s, she was a member of the New York Photo League from 1943 to 1951, as a both photographer and secretary.[5][7] She studied under Sid Grossman at the Photo League. Following World War II, she photographed Jewish Holocaust survivors in New York.[8][6] She participated in the 1949 exhibition This is the Photo League.[5]
After the dissolution of the Photo League in 1951, Meyer's work went largely unrecognized until 2006 when it was rediscovered by a gallery owner in Charlotte, North Carolina.[9]
In 2014 the Mint Museum in Charlotte presented the exhibition Bearing Witness: The New York Photo League and Sonia Handelman Meyer.[10][11] In 2019 she was included in the exhibition Modern Women: Modern Vision, Works from the Bank of America Collection at the Tampa Museum of Art.[12]
Meyer died in Charlotte, North Carolina, on September 11, 2022, at the age of 102.[3]
Collections
Meyer's work is held in the following permanent collections:
- Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: 1 print (as of December 2019)[13]
- Jewish Museum, New York: 3 prints (as of December 2019)[14]
- Mint Museum, Charlotte, North Carolina[15]
