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She Started With a 39-Cent Camera. She Ended Up in Magazines.

Ruth Orkin grew up in Hollywood; her mother was a silent-screen actress, and she began taking pictures at age 10 with a 39-cent Univex. She worked briefly at MGM with the idea of becoming a filmmaker, but left when she found out women were barred from joining the cinematographers’ union.

“Nanette Fabray, Set of ‘The Band Wagon,’” Hollywood, 1952.Credit…Ruth Orkin Photo Archive/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
Woman Holding Newspaper at Newsstand, New York, 1948Credit…Ruth Orkin Photo Archive/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
Julie Adams, Los Angeles, 1952Credit…Ruth Orkin Photo Archive/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
“Two Women Under the Dryer,” from the series Beauty Parlor, New York, 1949.Credit…Ruth Orkin Photo Archive/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
“Couple at Party,” New York, 1949.Credit…Ruth Orkin Photo Archive/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

After moving to New York City in 1943, she began working as a freelance photographer, shooting for Look, Life, Ladies’ Home Journal and The New York Times. Her best-known photo, “American Girl in Italy,” published as part of a series that ran in Cosmopolitan magazine in 1952, was not without controversy. (The picture was not in fact pure reportage of a spontaneous moment, but instead was staged to illustrate the leers that she, and other women, faced traveling alone.)

“Napping,” from the series “Who Works Harder?” (Nancy Barnhardt), New York, 1949.Credit…Ruth Orkin Photo Archive/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
“Model Putting On Lipstick,” from the series “The World of Fashion,” 1949.Credit…Ruth Orkin Photo Archive/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
“Lilli Palmer and Rex Harrison, Set of ‘Main Street to Broadway,’” New York, 1953.Credit…Ruth Orkin Photo Archive/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
“El Al Airline Stewardess,” Tel Aviv, 1951.Credit…Ruth Orkin Photo Archive/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
Fitting at Showroom, from the series, The World of Fashion, New York 1949Credit…Ruth Orkin Photo Archive/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
Woman on Beach Chair, Venice, Italy, 1961Credit…Ruth Orkin Photo Archive/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
“Woman With Three Weimaraners, Dog Show,” New York, 1949.Credit…Ruth Orkin Photo Archive/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
“Women on the Street,” New York, 1948.Credit…Ruth Orkin Photo Archive/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

In “Ruth Orkin: Women,” we see photos both posed and candid. One intimate series from late-1940s New York shows women under dryers and in curlers, smoking, reading and chatting in beauty parlors. Another that she pitched to Glamour magazine, “Who Works Harder?,” comparing the lives of stay-at-home moms and women who had outside careers, was a disappointment, however: It’s “great to teach a young woman how many hours it takes to be a mother and a houseworker,” she wrote in notes for an unpublished memoir in 1984, “but they ran the pictures so small it could hardly make any impact.” Here, they are shown in their full glory, along with lively behind-the-scenes candid shots of celebrities, and pictures of all kinds of women captured in ordinary moments when no one seems to be looking.

“On the Street,” New York, 1948.Credit…Ruth Orkin Photo Archive/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
“Woman in Phone Booth,” New York, 1949.Credit…Ruth Orkin Photo Archive/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

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