Milton Rogovin

When I took this class I came in with no knowledge of photography. To me pictures were just a piece of film from the past. I never appreciated photography until I entered this class and viewed the pictures from the book and visited the New York Historical Society with photographs from Milton Rogovin. His exhibition truly surprised me. When I heard about this trip I thought it was going to be another museum visit. The second I entered his exhibition I see a huge wall with two people dancing the trance. That picture really started my trip positively. As I started to look around I noticed that all of his pictures were of people. Every picture had sadness to it. These photographs really touched me. They each have their own story to tell. In the beginning I was wondering why Rogovin took photographs like that but until later I realized what his point was. These people were all from lower classes. No one ever pays attention to poor people and these photographs really made these people feel like they were worth something. Rogovin said that these were "the neglected people and places of Buffalo, NY." When I saw these pictures it seemed so real and natural. Rogovin did not have to do much to make these photographs mean something because automatically I felt something for these people just by looking at their faces. There were pictures of mothers with children, fathers with sons, friends with friends. Rogovin loved to see people grow through his pictures. He loved the way life could change so drastically in such a little time. He had a lot of photos that consisted of more than two sets. They all started off with the people being young and ending with them grown up. It was like a story of their life in just a couple of photographs. His work is amazing and it really did bring light to these people. It was very difficult to choose one photograph since I admired all of them and they all were touching pictures. But the one that really touched me was photo #16.

This set consisted of four photos. It was a mother with her daughter and it ranged from years 1972-2001. I first looked at this picture without reading the story or listening to the summary. I wanted to compare my view to what was actually happening. In the first photo the mother was sitting next to her young daughter. It seemed like they got all dressed up for this picture. The girl seemed like she was around 8 years old. In the second and third picture the little girl seemed all grown up blossomed into a woman with her mother by her side. In the fourth photograph the daughter was sitting down holding a picture of her mother. I knew right away that her mother passed away. This set really made me feel sad. When I read the story the daughter was saying how in the first picture her mother felt like a movie star. She felt admired like Rogovin said they felt. It must feel nice having a well known photographer taking a picture of you. The daughter said they were happy in the third picture where they were standing outside a graphitized wall. Her mother ended up "drinking