The International Origins of “Concerned Photography”

In 1967, the photojournalist and curator Cornell Capa curated The Concerned Photographer, which premiered in New York and traveled to Japan and Israel. This essay considers Capa’s notion of “concerned photography” as well as his central place among institutional leaders thinking about photography in light of their recent national pasts. In the United States, Capa adopted Lewis Hine as the spiritual father of concerned photography to make space for the European-born, Jewish photojournalists whose legacies he wanted to preserve. In Japan, The Concerned Photographer was part of a larger reckoning with Japanese fascism and imperialism, and in Israel, the exhibition codified tropes for representing the nation and advanced the collection of photography in Israeli museums. Capa’s efforts culminated in the creation of the International Center of Photography (ICP), whose origins open onto the larger story of Jewish émigrés’ involvement in photography’s institutional development around the world.