Photojournalist Ted Polumbaum documented some of the most important news events and social movements of the second half of the twentieth century with compassion, conviction, stunning beauty and often whimsy. On assignment for the era’s great picture magazines as well as through independent projects, he photographed athletes and artists, politicians and movie stars, parades and protests, museums and prisons, inclement weather and medical breakthroughs. Above all, traveling throughout the Americas and around the world, he chronicled the lives and aspirations of ordinary people. The book JUXTAPOSITIONS offers a striking selection of images from this sweeping legacy. An introduction provides context, and a biographical afterword relates Polumbaum’s unusual personal and professional story: fired from his newswriting job during the McCarthy era witchhunts, he survived the blacklist without compromising principle, returned to a youthful hobby of picture-taking, and emerged with this new career as a freelance photographer.
JUXTAPOSITIONS — selections from the Ted Polumbaum photo collection at the Newseum in Washington DC, a treasure trove of some 200,000 images — includes many hitherto unseen works. Using a motif of paired pictures, the volume draws attention to human connections across time, culture and geography. The book is being published by Gao House Press, a small independent press in Iowa City, Iowa, with an official publication date of September 1, 2016. Advance and review copies will be available by June 2016. A successful Kickstarter campaign will support printing and shipping costs for an initial press run of 3,000 copies of the book. And your patronage for this project will help introduce and sustain a remarkable visual legacy.
Below are a few examples from the book’s photo spreads: