Kaufman’s Brooklyn: 12 photos of ‘Odd ads and intriguing images’

October 15, 2020 Phil Kaufman

Photos courtesy of Phil Kaufman

Share this:

My father, Irving Kaufman (1910 – 1982), was a professional photographer who started in Brooklyn in the mid 1930s working for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. He captured thousands of images of Brooklyn through the 1950s. I have recently digitized a great many of them. My father’s profile can be found here.

This week’s theme:

This week’s posts break new ground. For 23 weeks and over 500 photos I’ve shown almost nothing commercial. That’s because I’m connecting my father’s work back to its roots – Brooklyn, the Eagle, public services, nonprofit institutions and developing his talent. It’s also because I’ve come to learn that his most artistic and interesting work was from these early Brooklyn years.

But most of his career was in Manhattan as a commercial photographer. In that work he showed plenty of the same quality, wit and beauty, but in a much different setting. The focus was not streets, people, celebrities, buildings, bridges. The work was mostly indoors with products and set scenes designed to tell a story or show something in an interesting way.

This week I’ll show some of that work. Unlike almost everything I’ve shown before, most of these pictures were created for explicit commercial purposes. Some seem to be primarily artistic expression, but they were often also displaying a specific object or scene for a paying client. I have selected just a small portion of the advertising work he did, since that was never to be the focus of this project with the Eagle. But to fully represent the scope of my father’s career, one week of selections from the commercial years seems warranted – and worthwhile for the quality of the pictures in their own right.

Today’s photos:

Today and tomorrow I turn from ads that at least hint at logic or a story, to objects that stand on their own. I’ve called the ads “odd,” since most have a quirky or unexpected twist to them. I call the objects “artsy” because, even though in themselves they are mundane and unembellished, the images provide a gentle touch of artistry.

Open book, seen from above

Rocking chair

Stalks

Mundane in the extreme

Kitchen items

Tickets from long ago. A lot to notice if you care to look.

Product demo

Seems like a catchy idea, but apparently not.

Objet d’art. Candy dish?

An index of Kaufman’s Brooklyn posts may be found here.

Irving Kaufman’s profile may be found here.

I invite you to submit comments, memories, images of Brooklyn, and especially any additional background information you can supply about the photos posted here to [email protected]. I’d also be glad to supply information about buying prints of any of the images seen here. Many of my father’s images are also available for viewing and purchase at http://yourartgallery.com/irvingkaufmanstudios. All prints purchased will be the product of professional scanning and editing.

Weekly collection 24: Photos of ‘Odd ads and intriguing images’