Simpson Kalisher

{{For|the unrelated American photojournalist of a similar surname|Clemens Kalischer}}

{{Infobox artist

| name = Simpson Kalisher

| image = Simpson Kalisher.jpg

| image_size =

| caption =

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{birth date|1926|7|27}}

| birth_place = New York City, U.S.

| death_date = {{death date and age|2023|6|13|1926|7|27}}

| death_place = Delray Beach, Florida, U.S.

| nationality =

| field = Photography

| training = Autodidact

| movement =

| works =

| patrons =

| awards = 1975, Gold Medal, Art Directors Club of Boston

| spouse =

}}

Simpson Kalisher (July 27, 1926 – June 13, 2023) was an American professional photojournalist and street photographer whose independent project Railroad Men attracted critical attention and is regarded as historically significant.

Early life

Simpson Kalisher was born to a Jewish family on July 27, 1926, in the Bronx, New York City, the youngest son of Sheva and Ben Kalisher and brother of Fay and Murray.New York City Department of Health{{cite news |title=Simpson Kalisher, Photographer Who Captured Urban Grit, Dies at 96 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/26/arts/simpson-kalisher-dead.html |access-date=July 26, 2023 |work=The New York Times |date=July 26, 2023 |archive-date=July 26, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230726143023/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/26/arts/simpson-kalisher-dead.html |url-status=live }} After one year of college, Kalisher was drafted into the military aged 18 in October 1944 for WW2 and was admitted to military hospital briefly in August 1945. He served in the U.S. Army until 1946 and was decorated with the Combat Infantryman's Badge.{{cite web |last1=Growcoot |first1=Matt |title=New York Street Photographer Simpson Kalisher Dies Age 96 |url=https://petapixel.com/2023/07/27/new-york-street-photographer-simpson-kalisher-dies-age-96/ |website=PetaPixel |access-date=July 27, 2023 |language=en |date=July 27, 2023 |archive-date=July 27, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230727132115/https://petapixel.com/2023/07/27/new-york-street-photographer-simpson-kalisher-dies-age-96/ |url-status=live }}

Photographer

= Commercial work =

== Freelance ==

After the war Kalisher undertook a BA in History at Indiana University Bloomington, graduating in 1948{{Cite journal |date=1948 |editor-last=Wiecking |editor-first=Charles W. |title=Arts and Sciences: Seniors |journal=Arbutus |volume=55 |pages=40, 41}} whereupon he immediately started in commercial photography, freelancing for Scope Associates whose clients included Texas Co. in the oil industry of the Kalispell area,{{Cite news |date=August 15, 1963 |title=Photography in Kalispell |pages=7 |work=The Daily Inter Lake |location=Kalispell, Montana}} and one of his pictures, taken for the company pre-1954, of two women in frilly aprons backlit and chatting at the gate of a house, was chosen by Edward Steichen for MoMA's world-touring The Family of Man, seen by nine million visitors.{{Cite book |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1190776895 |title=The family of man revisited: photography in a global age |publisher=I.B. Tauris |year=2020 |isbn=978-1-003-10393-6 |editor-last=Hurm |editor-first=Gerd |language=en |oclc=1190776895 |editor-last2=Reitz |editor-first2=Anke |editor-last3=Zamir |editor-first3=Shaman}}

== Magazines ==

His cameras at the time were Canon and Contax 35 mm format,{{Cite journal |date=March 1952 |title=Magazine photographers throw a champagne party |journal=Popular Photography |publisher=Bonnier Corporation |volume=30 |issue=3 |pages=80}} efficient and compact Japanese cameras increasingly being embraced by photojournalists post-war. Using them he produced images for a range of trade magazines like Chevrolet's Friends,{{Cite journal |date=October 1956 |title=HOME TOWN: A portfolio of Americana from Friends magazine reveals the photographic wealth of subject matter, in your own backyard |journal=Popular Photography |volume=39 |issue=4 |pages=83}} the American Iron and Steel Institute's Steelways,{{Cite journal |date=November 1962 |editor-last=Hill |editor-first=John W. |title=The Fourth R-conclusion |journal=Steelways |volume=18 |issue=5 |pages=8}} and photographed for MoMA. In a 1958 article in Popular Photography illustrated with his own pictures he urged his colleagues to consider "The World's Largest Photo Market", the company magazine.{{Cite journal |last=Kalisher |first=Simpson |date=November 1958 |title=A veteran photographer urges his fellow workers to take a good look at and then begin tapping the world's LARGEST photo market |journal=Popular Photography |volume=43 |issue=5 |pages=56–59, 107–108}} From the early fifties his photographs also appeared in American Youth,{{Cite journal |date=March 1960 |title=How Do You Plan to Make a Living? |journal=American Youth |publisher=Ceco Publishing Co |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=19 (image top left)}} Sports Illustrated,{{Cite magazine |date=August 26, 1957 |title=Acknowledgements |magazine=Sports Illustrated |volume=7 |issue=9 |pages=52}} Fortune,{{Cite journal |date=February 1955 |title=Acknowledgements |journal=Fortune |volume=51 |issue=2 |pages=56 |issn=0015-8259}} Interiors,{{Cite journal |last=Kalisher |first=Simpson |date=May 1990 |title=photograph of Paul Rand |journal=Interiors |volume=149 |issue=10 |pages=202}} Television/Radio Age,{{Cite journal |last=Swisshelm |first=George |date=February 7, 1972 |title=Advertisers reach for truckers with all-night radio |journal=Television/Radio Age |volume=19 |issue=13 |pages=26 |issn=0040-277X}} Coronet,{{Cite journal |last=Redmond |first=Louis |date=February 1953 |title=Walk Down Any Street |journal=Coronet |volume=33 |issue=4 |pages=73}} Musical America,{{Cite journal |date=April 1957 |title=International Report: Orchestras in New York: Jenkins Conducts Choral Premieres |journal=Musical America |volume=77 |issue=5 |pages=23}} Popular Photography,{{Cite journal |date=August 1956 |title=35-mm at Work: a portfolio of outstanding pictures |journal=Popular Photography |volume=39 |issue=2 |pages=59 |issn=1542-0337}} Business Week,{{Cite journal |date=July 13, 1957 |title=The Pictures |journal=Business Week |issue=1454 |pages=2 |issn=0007-7135}} and he produced the photographs for book publications including Clinical Sociology{{Cite book |first=Barry |last=Glassner |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/631019350 |title=Clinical sociology: Original photogr. by Simpson Kalisher |date=1979 |publisher=Longman |isbn=0-582-28049-4 |oclc=631019350 |access-date=September 18, 2022 |archive-date=July 27, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230727131645/https://worldcat.org/title/631019350 |url-status=live }} and for a new 1955 edition of Charles Darwin's The Expression of the emotions in man and animals.{{Cite book |last=Darwin |first=Charles |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.4820 |title=The expression of the emotions in man and animals |date=1916 |publisher=D. Appleton and Co. |location=New York |doi=10.5962/bhl.title.4820 |access-date=September 18, 2022 |archive-date=July 27, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230727131654/https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/4820 |url-status=live }}

== Annual reports and advertising ==

Kalisher's work for annual reports{{Cite book |last=Brown |first=David R. |title=The print casebooks / Representing the best in Annual Reports |publisher=RC Publications |year=1975 |isbn=9780915734023 |location=New York, N.Y. |pages=99 |oclc=313656719}}{{Cite book |last=Fox |first=Martin |title=Print casebooks 3 |publisher=RC Publications |year=1978 |isbn=9780915734184 |location=Washington |pages=66 |oclc=4318190}}{{Cite book |first=Walter |last=Herdeg |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/959199564 |title=Photographis' 69: international annual of advertising photography: internationales jahrbuch der werbephotographie: répertoire international de la photographie publicitaire |date=1969 |publisher=The Graphis Press |pages=158–9 |language=fr, de, en |oclc=959199564 |access-date=September 18, 2022 |archive-date=July 27, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230727131644/https://worldcat.org/title/959199564 |url-status=live }} was recognised in the Time-LIFE photography book Photojournalism which in a section "Helping Corporations Look Their Best" it used examples of his semi-abstract colour photographs for the annual reports of the Wallace-Murray Corporation and of Bangor Punta.{{Cite book |last=Time-Life Books |title=Photojournalism |publisher=Time-Life Books |year=1971 |location=New York, N.Y. |pages=210, 211 |oclc=154597}} Other clients for annual reports were Mobil,{{Cite book |title=Mobil Annual Report 1970 |publisher=Mobil Oil Corporation |year=1970 |location=New York, N.Y. |pages=11 (bottom), 23 (center left), 25, 27, 28}} Champion International (1976), Condec Corporation,{{Cite book |last=Barron |first=Don |title=Creativity 7 : A Photographic Review of Creativity '77 Displayed at the New York Hilton New York Nov. 1 2 3 1977 |publisher=Art Direction Book |year=1978 |isbn=9780910158350 |location=New York |pages=522 |language=en |oclc=6681663}} Miles Pharmaceuticals{{Cite book |first=Richard |last=Bayan |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/19325016 |title=The Best in medical advertising and graphics: selections from the Rx Club shows |date=1989 |publisher=Rockport Publishers |isbn=0-935603-20-4 |pages=143 |oclc=19325016}} and Arkwright-Boston Insurance.{{Cite book |first=Walter |last=Herdeg |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/778990882 |title=Photographis: the international annual of advertising and editorial photography = das internationale jahrbuch der werbephotographie und der redaktionellen photographie = le repertoire international de la photographie publicitaire et redactionnelle. |date=1979 |publisher=Graphis Press |isbn=3-85709-279-3 |oclc=778990882 |access-date=September 18, 2022 |archive-date=July 27, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230727131646/https://worldcat.org/title/778990882 |url-status=live }} He received a gold medal in 1975 for a Cabot Corporation annual report in the Editorial category of The 21st annual exhibition of the Art Directors Club of Boston. A later client, in 1980 when Kalisher was in his fifties, was the Salvation Army, for whom he produced a series of gritty vignettes for their magazine advertisements.{{Cite news |date=May 10, 1980 |title=Full-page advertisement |pages=21 |work=The Messenger |location=Madisonville, Kentucky}}

= Independent documentary projects =

Kalisher was better known for his independent projects, including his street photography made mostly in New York City,{{Cite book |last1=Kismaric |first1=Susan |title=American Children Photographs from the Collection of the Museum of Modern Art. Museum ; Distributed by New York Graphic Society 1980. |last2=Museum of Modern Art (New York N.Y.) |publisher=The Museum ; Distributed by New York Graphic Society |year=1980 |isbn=9780870702327 |location=New York, Boston |pages=33 |language=en |oclc=7671874}}{{Cite book |last=William Hayes Ackland Memorial Art Center |title=The American Situation : The Camera's Century. 1975. |publisher=University of North Carolina |year=1975 |isbn=9780807812594 |location=Chapel Hill |pages=plates 15, 52}}{{Cite book |last=Galassi |first=Peter |title=Walker Evans & company |publisher=Museum of Modern Art: Distributed by H.N. Abrams |year=2000 |isbn=9780870700323 |location=New York |pages=128, 194, 265 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last1=Galassi |first1=Peter |title=American photography, 1890-1965, from the Museum of Modern Art, New York |last2=The Museum of Modern Art |last3=Sante |first3=Luc |publisher=The Museum of Modern Art |year=1995 |isbn=9780810961432 |location=New York |pages=238, 250 |language=en |oclc=33407649}}{{Cite book |last1=Doty |first1=Robert M |title=et al. Photography in America. Published for the Whitney Museum of American Art 1974. |last2=White |first2=Minor |last3=Whitney Museum of American Art |publisher=Whitney Museum of American Art |year=1974 |isbn=9780394493558 |location=New York, N.Y. |pages=228 |oclc=841737}} which he published in book form, exhibited, and which were included in major Museum of Modern Art surveys including The Family of Man (1955) and Mirrors and Windows: American Photography Since 1960 (1978).{{Cite book |last1=Galassi |first1=Peter |title=American Photography 1890–1965 from the Museum of Modern Art New York |last2=Sante |first2=Luc |publisher=The Museum of Modern Art: Distributed by H.N. Abrams |year=1995 |isbn=9780810961432 |edition=Clothbound |location=New York |pages=238, 248, 254 |language=en |oclc=33407649}}

During the 1950s he joined others freely practicing social documentary photography as an emerging art form; he befriended Garry Winogrand, who grew up near Kalisher, and his associates Guy Gillette, Jay Maisel, and John Lewis Stage as well as Lee Friedlander, who arrived in New York in 1955. It was Kalisher who introduced Winogrand to Nathan Lyons,{{Cite journal |last=Pelizzari |first=Maria Antonella |date=1997 |title=Nathan Lyons: An Interview |journal=History of Photography |volume=21 |issue=2 |pages=147–155|doi=10.1080/03087298.1997.10443732 }}{{Cite book |last= |first= |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/932743492 |title=Nathan Lyons: selected essays, lectures, and interviews |date=2012 |publisher=University of Texas Press |isbn=978-0-292-73771-6 |editor-last=McDonald |editor-first=Jessica S. |oclc=932743492}} assistant director of George Eastman House, Rochester, New York in 1952. During the showing of The Family of Man at MoMA (1955), Kalisher, Arthur Lavine, May Mirin, Hella Hammid, Ray Jacobs, Ruth Orkin, and Ed Wallowitch.{{Cite book |last=Gee |first=Helen |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/44965806 |title=Limelight: a Greenwich Village photography gallery and coffeehouse in the fifties: a memoir |date=1997 |publisher=University of New Mexico Press |isbn=0-585-18769-X |edition=1st |location=Albuquerque |oclc=44965806}} and others included in that landmark international exhibition gathered at Helen Gee's Limelight gallery, New York City's first important post-war photography gallery.{{Cite journal |last1=Warren |first1=Bruce |last2=Gee |first2=Helen |date=1997 |title=Helen Gee's Limelight: An Interview |journal=On Paper |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=22–27}} In 1957 he joined Winogrand in meetings of an informal group of independent photographers, with Lee Friedlander, David Vestal, Saul Leiter, Walt Silver and Harold Feinstein in John Cohen's loft.{{Cite book |last1=Cohen |first1=John |title=There Is No Eye: John Cohen Photographs |last2=Marcus |first2=Greil |publisher=PowerHouse Books |year=2001 |isbn=9781576871072 |edition=1st |pages=82 |oclc=47364161}} Later, in 1966 Kalisher was to tape-record an interview with Winogrand in which they discussed the 'snapshot' aesthetic{{Cite journal |title=Social Landscape Photography of the Sixties: Street Engagements |journal=Image |publisher=International Museum of Photography |publication-place=Rochester, N.Y. |volume=41 |issue=2 |pages=30 |issn=0536-5465}} and the desirability of its 'casualness', though it was a term Winogrand was to disown in the 1970s.{{Cite book |last=Rubinfien |first=Leo |title=Garry Winogrand |publisher=San Francisco Museum of Modern Art |year=2013 |isbn=9780300191776 |oclc=813921579}}

In 1959 the photographer Ivan Dmitri, with support of the Saturday Review, initiated "Photography in the Fine Arts" (PFA), a series of six large group exhibitions of contemporary photography selected by juries of American museum curators and exhibited in national museums. During its preparation in 1958 both U.S. Camera and Modern Photography denounced the project because the work selected was from commercially published sources, and not by direct request from the photographers themselves. In 1959 members and associates of the independent group, Kalisher, Robert Frank, Lee Friedlander, Ray Jacobs, Saul Leiter, Jay Maisel, Walt Silver, David Vestal and Garry Winogrand signed a letter of objection, sending it to MoMA, which may have influenced Edward Steichen in a decision not to continue supporting PFA beyond its initial exhibition.{{Cite book |last=Lyons |first=Nathan |title=Master photographs : master photographs from PFA exhibitions 1959–67 |publisher=International Center of Photography |year=1988 |isbn=9780933642126 |location=New York City |pages=27 |chapter=PFA and its Controversy|oclc=21410828}}

Kalisher's 1961 book, Railroad Men: A Book of Photographs and Collected Stories with 44 duotone plates of men at work on trains and in railway yards in a period of decline for that form of transport,{{Cite book |last1=Handler |first1=Daniel |title=Hurry up and wait |last2=Kalman |first2=Maira |last3=Museum of Modern Art |publisher=Museum of Modern Art |year=2015 |isbn=9780870709593 |location=New York |pages=27, 61 |oclc=891618606}}{{Cite journal |last=Fisher |first=Charles E. |date=1968 |title=The Railway & Locomotive Historical Society, Inc. |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3111214 |journal=Bulletin of the Business Historical Society |volume=118 |issue=5 |pages=21–42 |doi=10.2307/3111214 |jstor=3111214 |issn=1065-9048 }}{{Cite journal |date=April 1962 |title=Review Railroad Men, by Simpson Kalisher. no. 106, 1962, pp. 79–79. |journal=The Railway and Locomotive Historical Society Bulletin |publisher=Railway & Locomotive Historical Society |volume=106 |pages=79}} was produced from pictures for an unpublished magazine assignment. He funded the project himself and used a Leica and tape recorder. The photographs were accompanied by 44 interviews recorded by the photographer.{{Cite journal |date=October 1981 |title=Railroad Men |journal=Popular Photography |volume=88 |issue=10 |pages=38 |issn=1542-0337}}{{Cite news |last=Kutchinski |first=Paul |date=March 12, 1962 |title=Startling Picture Given Of Today's Railroaders |pages=6 |work=Ledger-Enquirer |publication-place=Columbus, Georgia}}{{Cite news |date=July 14, 1962 |title=Book Reviews: Some Human Interest Pictures Of Railroading Men At Work |pages=35 |work=Daily Independent Journal |publication-place=San Rafael, California}}

Kalisher followed Railroad Men with two more photographic books, Propaganda and Other Photographs (1976){{Cite book |last1=Kalisher |first1=Simpson |title=Propaganda and Other Photographs |last2=Baker |first2=Russell |publisher=Two Penny Press/Addison House |year=1976 |isbn=9780891690078 |language=en |oclc=2346169}} in which Ian Jeffrey identifies the photographer as "a specialist observer of urban alienation and, like Diane Arbus, a brutal parodist of pictorial stereotypes;"{{Cite book |first=Ian |last=Jeffrey |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/7653149 |title=Photography: a concise history |date=1981 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-520355-0 |oclc=7653149}} and The Alienated Photographer (2011),{{Cite book |last=photographer. |first=Kalisher, Simpson |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/726155165 |title=The alienated photographer |date=2011 |publisher=Two Penny Press |isbn=978-0-578-07134-3 |oclc=726155165}}{{Cite journal |last=Nye |first=Valerie |date=July 2011 |title=Review: "The Alienated Photographer." |journal=Library Journal |volume=136 |issue=12 |pages=79}} the contents of which were also exhibited.

Kalisher was listed in a document with other photographers Garry Winogrand, Hans Namuth, Harry Callahan, Roy De Carava, amongst numbers of artists and musicians as attending a public meeting of the National Committee for a SANE Nuclear Policy in Madison Square Garden on May 19, 1960. The document was used in the 1960 Senate inquiry "Communist Infiltration in the Nuclear Test Ban Movement.{{Cite book |title=United States and National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy (U.S.). Communist Infiltration in the Nuclear Test Ban Movement : Hearing Before the Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws of the Committee on the Judiciary United States Senate Eighty-Sixth Congress Second Session. Testimony of Henry H. Abrams of the Greater New York Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy. May 13 1960. |publisher=United States Government Printing Office |year=1960 |pages=76–7 |language=en |oclc=234096}} In 1974, by contrast, he is identified as "the internationally famed photographer" for his picture of Litchfield County's Shepaug River used to illustrate the Senate Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs Amend the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act document (part 4) to show its "scenic beauty of and the dramatic action of its clear, unspoiled water."{{Cite book |last=Affairs |first=United States Congress Senate Committee on Interior and Insular |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N5WYCZ6hd7wC&dq=%22Simpson+Kalisher%22&pg=PA524 |title=To Amend the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act (part 4): Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Public Lands of the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, United States Senate, Ninety-third Congress, Second Session, on S. 30 ... [and Other Bills], June 20, 1974 |date=1975 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |language=en |access-date=September 16, 2022 |archive-date=June 20, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230620114735/https://books.google.com/books?id=N5WYCZ6hd7wC&dq=%22Simpson+Kalisher%22&pg=PA524 |url-status=live }}

Portraits

Kalisher photographed several significant people; his candid series of poet Reuel Denney speaking were used by anthropologist Margaret Mead as examples in her 1955 update of Charles Darwin's The Expression of the emotions in man and animals. He photographed Mead too,{{Cite book |last=Cohen-Cole |first=Jamie Nace |title=The Open Mind: Cold War Politics and the Sciences of Human Nature. |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=2016 |isbn=9780226361901 |edition=Paperback |location=Chicago |pages=113, 114, 133 |oclc=969450053}}{{Cite journal |last=Cohen‐Cole |first=Jamie |date=June 2009 |title=The Creative American: Cold War Salons, Social Science, and the Cure for Modern Society |journal=The History of Science Society |publisher=The University of Chicago Press |volume=100 |issue=2 |pages=219–262}} and designer Paul Rand, artist Peter Voulkos,{{Cite book |last1=Foley |first1=Suzanne |title=Ceramic Sculpture: Six Artists |last2=Marshall |first2=Richard |last3=Whitney Museum of American Art |last4=San Francisco Museum of Modern Art |publisher=Whitney Museum of American Art ; in Association with the University of Washington Press |year=1981 |isbn=9780874270358 |location=New York, Seattle |pages=15 |oclc=7795183}} entrepreneur Mitch Kapor,{{Cite book |first=Books |last=Time-Life |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/499961236 |title=Software |date=1986 |publisher=Time-Life Books |isbn=0-7054-0911-2 |oclc=499961236}} philosopher Marshall McLuhan, and conductor Newell Jenkins. Even his executive portraits for annual reports had an informal, reportage quality; he told Arnold Newman for an article in Universal Photo Almanac that "each portrait must be a fresh experience and that the camera user must discard formulas of working."{{Cite journal |title=Books in Review : Samuels, Ralph, editor, Universal Photo Almanac, 1952, Falk Publishing Co., New York $1.75 |journal=American Photography |date=February 1952 |volume=46 |issue=2 |pages=68}}

Reception

Helmut Gernsheim described Kalisher's Railroad Men as "a highly stimulating book (1961) on the forgotten workers of the American railroad companies",{{Cite book |last=Gernsheim |first=Helmut |title=Die Fotografie. 1. – 10. Tsd ed. Molden 1971. |publisher=Molden-Sammlung Kulturgeschichte |year=1971 |isbn=9783217004023 |location=Wien, München, Zürich |pages=283 |language=de}} and in 1962 curator Hugh Edwards likened it to the work of Lewis Hine, Walker Evans, and W. Eugene Smith, as promoting "those ancient qualities, human dignity and character."{{Cite journal |last=Edwards |first=Hugh |date=March 1962 |title=Book review: Railroad Men, by Simpson Kalisher |journal=Infinity: American Society of Magazine Photographers |volume=11 |issue=3 |pages=20}} Beaumont Newhall, Director at George Eastman House selected him for Art in America's 1960 listing of 'New Talent Artists',{{Cite journal |last=Newhall |first=Beaumont |title=New Talent Artists: Statements And Statistics |journal=Art in America |date=1960 |volume=48 |issue=1 |pages=59}} and congratulated him on his book, writing; "Many photographers have documented railroads, but you have brought us a moving record of railroad men."{{Cite journal |date=Spring 1962 |title=Advertisement |journal=Mountain Life & Work |volume=38 |issue=1 |pages=48}} 'R.B.' in Image magazine welcomed its "sensitive yet striking images selected and organized by a perceptive eye and ear", and sensed in the "somber sometimes haunting pictures and a counter point of stories ... reflections of a setting sun; the proud tired faces of men no longer young, working in the unhurried evening of an elderly industry."{{Cite journal |last=R.B. |date=1962 |title=Book Review |journal=Image: The Bulletin of the George Eastman House of Photography |publisher=International Museum of Photography |volume=11 |issue=3 |pages=12}} Rus Arnold in Writer's Digest said what he thought most important about Railroad Men:

the fact that Kalisher has presented to us another variation on photo-reporting. Even while he was recording "the remarkable decency of these mature human faces and the brotherhood of the men's vocation" (as Jonathan Williams puts it in the introduction) he was tape-recording their thoughts, their memories. The formula is one many of us could well look into. It's not entirely new. The camera-and-tape-recorder interview has been appearing in magazines for years, but the result has usually been a set of words illustrated by pictures, or a set of pictures with quote-captions. In Railroad Men we have a social document conveyed through two media of communication, a rare blending of two pieces of machinery (the camera and the tape recorder) to produce a poetic essay.{{Cite journal |last=Arnold |first=Rus |date=December 1961 |title=Journalism |journal=Writer's Digest |volume=41 |issue=12 |pages=47–8 |issn=0043-9525}}

John Upton in Aperture, 1962, was more guarded in his praise, conceding that Railroad Men represents "the efforts of a photojournalist to come to grips with his medium on his own terms, without the pressures of deadline or editors", inspired while on a magazine assignment, and the taped interviews "an attempt to bring to life the romance and lore of this peculiarly American industry", but notes that though the skilful photographs are clearly the work of a "bread and butter photojournalist [they] often lack the poetic edge that turns fact into truth. The viewer never feels that the author has really come to "grips" with his medium as he states as his purpose in the epilogue ... The book illustrates both the pitfalls and advantages of what can happen when a photojournalist gets his wish and works without the guiding hand of the picture editor."{{Cite journal |last=Upton |first=John |date=1962 |title=Reviewed Work(s): RAILROAD MEN by Simpson Kalisher and Jonathan Williams |journal=Aperture |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=40}}

Edith Weigle in the Tribune of Kalisher's 1962 show at the Art Institute of Chicago wrote

They are powerful because of the photographer's ability to get at the essentials and to comprehend and portray the character of each man. Nonessentials are stripped away. The only "special effects" are the deep shadows which are there by nature, and the photographer's use of empty space, which seems innate.{{Cite news |last=Weigle |first=Edith |date=9 September 1962 |title=When There's an Artist |pages=108 |work=Chicago Tribune |location=Chicago, Illinois}}

Much later, when the photographer was 85, in their review of his retrospective Simpson Kalisher: The Alienated Photographer at De Lellis Gallery in 2011, The New Yorker characterises his output as sharing "a casually incisive style with Garry Winogrand's, Tod Papageorge's, and Joel Meyerowitz's pictures of the city … but Kalisher worked primarily on the street, yielding photographs that are anecdotal and full of characters."

William Meyers contradicts Upton's earlier perception that few of the railroad photographs "make the common very uncommon", when he reviewed the 2011 show in The Wall Street Journal;{{Cite news |last=Meyers |first=William |date=October 22, 2011 |title=Arts & Entertainment – on Photography: Mother of the Unconventional |pages=24 |work=Wall Street Journal}}

Simpson Kalisher ... is one of the street photographers who made midtown Manhattan as critical a site for mid-20th-century photography as the forest of Arden was for Shakespearean comedy. In a picture taken in 1959, the camera looks north up Fifth Avenue as the traffic light changes and a massed wave of pedestrians steps off the curb to cross West 51st Street. Nothing unusual is happening in this picture, there are no freaks or confrontations, but our eye keeps moving left to right and then right to left across the line of faces approaching us: The ordinariness of these people is quite stunning. The men and women look straight ahead as they march single-mindedly toward us and their destinations. It is not really us, of course, but Mr. Kalisher who is headed in the other direction.

The highest price paid for a print by Kalisher at auction is US$1,875 for an untitled work made c. 1949–1950, sold at Christie's New York in 2010.{{cite web |title=Simpson Kalisher (B. 1926) |url=https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-5304304 |website=Christie's |access-date=July 27, 2023 |archive-date=July 27, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230727165200/https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-5304304 |url-status=live }}

Teaching and industry contributions

In the 1960s Kalisher was a regional editor for Aperture photography magazine alongside others,{{Cite journal |date=1961 |title=Credits |journal=Aperture |volume=9 |issue=3 |pages=Table of Contents}} and in 1962 was elected alternate secretary of the American Society of Magazine Photographers.{{Cite news |last=Kinch |first=Bart |date=April 19, 1962 |title=Don't leave flash on camera for top light |pages=5 |work=The Banning Record Beaumont Gazette}}{{Cite news |last=Kinch |first=Bart |date=April 19, 1962 |title=Photography |pages=45 |work=Austin American-Statesman |location=Austin, Texas}}

Personal life

Kalisher's son Jesse, after a career in advertising, also became a photographer,{{Cite news |last=Greenlee-Donnell |first=Cynthia |date=February 25, 2005 |title=Storyteller to present own travelogue in Carrboro |pages=50 |work=The Herald-Sun |location=Durham, North Carolina}} and operated his own gallery. He died in 2017.{{Cite web |title=Obituary of Jesse Kalisher {{!}} Walker's Funeral Home |url=https://walkersfuneralservice.com/tribute/details/1440/Jesse-Kalisher/obituary.html |access-date=September 16, 2022 |website=walkersfuneralservice.com |language=en-US |archive-date=September 16, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220916040609/https://walkersfuneralservice.com/tribute/details/1440/Jesse-Kalisher/obituary.html |url-status=live }}

During a 50-year career in photography, Kalisher lived in New York from 1950 to 1971, returning from 2005 to 2013, first in Roxbury from 1971 to 1998 and in Greenwich from 1998 to 2005. He retired to Delray Beach, Florida in 2013 and died there on June 13, 2023, at age 96.

Publications

Railroad Men: A Book of Photographs and Collected Stories, with an introduction by Jonathan Williams, New York 1961.{{cite book |last1=Kalisher |first1=Simpson |title=Railroad Men: A Book of Photographs and Collected Stories |date=1961 |publisher=Clarke & Way |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aIBuQgAACAAJ |access-date=July 27, 2023 |language=en |archive-date=July 29, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230729054335/https://books.google.com/books?id=aIBuQgAACAAJ |url-status=live }}
Propaganda and Other Photographs, with an introduction by Russel Baker, and afterword by Allon Schoener, Danbury, New Hampshire 1976.{{cite book |last1=Kalisher |first1=Simpson |title=Propaganda and Other Photographs |date=1976 |publisher=Addison House |isbn=978-0-89169-007-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g2zlAAAAMAAJ |access-date=July 27, 2023 |language=en |archive-date=July 29, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230729054409/https://books.google.com/books?id=g2zlAAAAMAAJ |url-status=live }}
Illustrations for Clinical Sociology by Glassner and Freedman, New York and London 1979.{{cite book |last1=Glassner |first1=Barry |last2=Freedman |first2=Jonathan A. |title=Clinical Sociology |date=1979 |publisher=Longman |isbn=978-0-582-28049-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Tsq2AAAAIAAJ |access-date=July 27, 2023 |language=en |archive-date=July 29, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230729054827/https://books.google.com/books?id=Tsq2AAAAIAAJ |url-status=live }}
The Alienated Photographer, Simpson Kalister and Luc Sante, Two Penny Press 2011.{{cite book |title=The Alienated Photographer |date=2011 |publisher=Two Penny Press |isbn=978-0-578-07134-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1sUxKQEACAAJ |access-date=July 27, 2023 |language=en |archive-date=July 29, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230729054827/https://books.google.com/books?id=1sUxKQEACAAJ |url-status=live }}

Exhibitions

= Solo =

1961, October: Simpson Kalisher, Eastman House{{Cite news |date=October 22, 1961 |title=listing |pages=119 |work=Democrat and Chronicle |location=Rochester, New York}}{{Cite journal |date=1961 |title=Exhibitions |journal=Image: The Bulletin of the George Eastman House of Photography |publisher=International Museum of Photography |volume=10 |issue=4 |pages=16}}
1962, September–October: Simpson Kalisher, 60 photographs, Art Institute Chicago{{Cite news |date=August 30, 1962 |title=Camera Club Notes |pages=12 |work=Chicago Tribune |location=Chicago, Illinois}}{{Cite journal |date=June 1962 |title=Summer Exhibitions |journal=The Art Institute of Chicago Quarterly |volume=56 |issue=2 |pages=40}}{{Cite journal |date=September 1962 |title=International Exhibition Calendar |journal=Art International |language=en, de, fr, it |volume=6 |issue=7 |pages=67 |issn=0004-3230 |oclc=1978279}}
1978, September–October: Photography as social literature: concurrent shows of documentary photography by Roy Stryker and Simpson Kalisher. Farmington Valley Arts Center, Avon Park North{{Cite news |date=September 2, 1978 |title=Arts Calendar: Exhibits |pages=35 |work=Record-Journal |location=Meriden, Connecticut}}
1980, August–September: Photographs by Simpson Kalisher of Roxbury, and photographs from two of Kalisher's books, "Railroad Men, Photographs and Collected Stories" and "Propaganda and other Photographs". Voltaire Gallery, New Milford{{Cite news |date=August 10, 1980 |title=Galleries |pages=137 |work=Hartford Courant |location=Hartford, Connecticut}}{{Cite news |last=Raynor |first=Vivien |date=August 24, 1980 |title=Art Photos by Kallisher at New Milford |work=New York Times}}
1984, June–September: Simpson Kalisher Railroad Men, photographs of rail workers. Akron Art Museum{{Cite news |date=June 7, 1984 |title=Galleries |pages=48 |work=The Akron Beacon Journal |location=Akron, Ohio}}
2001, May–August: The City Seen: Simpson Kalisher Photographs, Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse{{Cite news |date=May 31, 2001 |title=Regional Exhibits |pages=48 |work=Star-Gazette |location=Elmira, New York}}{{Cite journal |date=June 2001 |title=Exhibitions |journal=Afterimage |volume=28 |issue=6 |pages=19}}
2003, August 8: Auto-Focus. Keith de Lellis Gallery, 47 East 68th Street, Manhattan{{Cite news |last=Glueck |first=Grace |date=August 1, 2003 |title='Auto-Focus' |pages=E32 |work=The New York Times}}
2011, Simpson Kalisher: The Alienated Photographer, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, River Oaks, Houston, Texas, USA{{cite web |title=Simpson Kalisher: The Alienated Photographer (May 17 – September 18, 2011) |url=https://www.mfah.org/exhibitions/simpson-kalisher-alienated-photographer |website=The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston |access-date=July 27, 2023 |language=en |archive-date=June 18, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230618094055/https://www.mfah.org/exhibitions/simpson-kalisher-alienated-photographer/ |url-status=live }}

= Group =

1950, August–September: Photographs by 51 Photographers, Museum of Modern Art, New York
1955, January–May: The Family of Man, Museum of Modern Art, New York
1964, February–March: Four directions in photography Simpson Kalisher, Oscar Bailey, Charles Swedlund, Minor White, Albright–Knox Art Gallery{{Cite book |title=Four directions in photography: Simpson Kalisher, Oscar Bailey, Charles Swedlund, Minor White |publisher=The Gallery, Buffalo |year=1964 |oclc=922650738}}
1965, March–May: The Photo Essay, Museum of Modern Art, New York
1965/6, October 1965 – January 1966: Recent Acquisitions: Photography, Museum of Modern Art, New York
1967, January–February: 12 photographers of the American social landscape, Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, Mass.{{Cite book |last=Poses Institute of Fine Arts and Rose Art Museum |title=12 Photographers of the American Social Landscape: Bruce Davidson Robert Frank Lee Friedlander Ralph Gibson Warren Hill Rudolph Janu Simpson Kalisher Danny Lyon James Marchael Duane Michals Philip Perkis and Tom Zimmermann |publisher=October House |year=1967 |oclc=226488294}}
1967, July: Summer show: 12 photographers of the American social landscape, Addison Gallery, Phillips Academy, Andover, from Poses Institute of Fine Arts, Brandeis University{{Cite journal |date=May 1965 |title=Newsfront |journal=Popular Photography |volume=60 |issue=5 |pages=8 |issn=1542-0337}}
1968, February–March: Ben Schultz Memorial Exhibition, Museum of Modern Art, New York
1971, April 2: Steichen Gallery Reinstallation, Museum of Modern Art, New York
1976, January–February: The Camera's Century: The American Situation. 88 photographs. Ackland Museum, Chapel Hill{{Cite news |last=Greenberg |first=Blue |date=January 18, 1976 |title=Photos Tell Intimate Tales |pages=57 |work=The Herald-Sun |location=Durham, North Carolina}}
1978, July–October: Mirrors and Windows: American Photography since 1960{{Cite web |title=Simpson Kalisher {{!}} MoMA |url=https://www.moma.org/artists/2972 |access-date=September 16, 2022 |website=Museum of Modern Art |language=en |archive-date=September 16, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220916014604/https://www.moma.org/artists/2972 |url-status=live }}
1995/6, December–January: Black-and white photographs of New York City dating from the forties through the sixties by David Attie, Donald Blumberg, Simpson Kalisher, Fritz Neugass, and Marvin Newman. James Danziger Gallery, 130 Prince St. New York{{Cite journal |date=December 25, 1995 |title=Galleries |journal=New York Magazine}}
2019, Moves Like Walter: New Curators Open the Corcoran Legacy Collection, American University Museum, Washington D.C., District Of Columbia, USA{{cite web |title=Moves Like Walter: New Curators Open the Corcoran Legacy Collection |url=https://www.american.edu/cas/museum/2019/moves-like-walter.cfm |publisher=American University |access-date=July 27, 2023 |language=en |archive-date=July 5, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230705112107/https://www.american.edu/cas/museum/2019/moves-like-walter.cfm |url-status=live }}

Awards

Life magazine Contest for Young Photographers, Third Honourable Mention, Individual Picture Division{{Cite magazine |date=November 26, 1951 |title=The winners of the young photographers contest |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g1QEAAAAMBAJ&dq=LIFE+26+November+1951%2C+p.30+Vol.+31%2C+No.+22&pg=PA15 |magazine=LIFE |volume=31 |issue=22 |pages=30 |issn=0024-3019}}
Gold Medal for a Cabot Corporation report by Michael Weymouth and Simpson Kalisher of Weymouth Design in the Editorial category of The 21st annual exhibition of the Art Directors Club of Boston "Design 1"{{Cite news |last=Kemp |first=David |date=March 24, 1975 |title=Ads/Agencies: Art Directors |pages=25 |work=The Boston Globe}}
1968: Arts Grant, NY State Commn.{{Cite book |last=Ficarra |first=J. Alex |url=https://archive.org/details/inspiringyouthof0000unse |title=Inspiring the Youth of America by Remington Registry Presidential Edition 2016 |publisher=Authorhouse |year=2016 |isbn=9781524620486 |edition=eBook |oclc=1302088304}}
1969–1971: NY State Grant

Collections

Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago: 14 prints (as of June 18, 2023){{cite web|access-date=June 18, 2023|title=Simpson Kalisher|url=https://www.artic.edu/artists/35184/simpson-kalisher|website=The Art Institute of Chicago|archive-date=June 18, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230618093052/https://www.artic.edu/artists/35184/simpson-kalisher|url-status=live}}
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art: 2 prints (as of June 18, 2023){{Cite web |title=Kalisher, Simpson |url=https://www.sfmoma.org/artist/simpson-kalisher/ |access-date=June 18, 2023 |website=SFMOMA |language=en-US}}
National Gallery of Art, New York: 1 print (as of June 18, 2023){{Cite web |title=Artist Info |url=https://www.nga.gov/collection/artist-info.40457.html |access-date=September 15, 2022 |website=www.nga.gov |archive-date=September 16, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220916014617/https://www.nga.gov/collection/artist-info.40457.html |url-status=live }}
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston: 95 prints (as of June 18, 2023){{Cite web |title=Simpson Kalisher |access-date=June 18, 2023 |url=https://emuseum.mfah.org/people/13201/simpson-kalisher/objects |website=Museum of Fine Art Houston |archive-date=September 16, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220916014606/https://emuseum.mfah.org/people/13201/simpson-kalisher/objects |url-status=live }}{{cite web|access-date=June 18, 2023|title=Simpson Kalisher: The Alienated Photographer (May 17 – September 18, 2011)|url=https://www.mfah.org/exhibitions/simpson-kalisher-alienated-photographer/|website=The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston|archive-date=June 18, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230618094055/https://www.mfah.org/exhibitions/simpson-kalisher-alienated-photographer/|url-status=live}}
Museum of Modern Art, New York: 1 print (as of June 18, 2023){{Cite web |title=Simpson Kalisher {{!}} MoMA |url=https://www.moma.org/artists/2972 |access-date=June 18, 2023 |website=The Museum of Modern Art |language=en |archive-date=September 16, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220916014604/https://www.moma.org/artists/2972 |url-status=live }}