Esther Bubley: Third Avenue Elevated Train, New York City, ca. 1951

Digital C-Print
Image Size: 8 1/4 × 12 in.
Paper Size: 11 × 14 in.
Edition of 50
Estate Proof Only available

Esther Bubley (b. 1921, Phillips, Wisconsin, 1921; d. 1998, New York City) was one of America’s leading photojournalists. Bubley’s mentor was Roy Stryker, for whom she worked at the Office of War Information in Washington, D.C., and at Standard Oil in New York City. Under Stryker, Bubley learned to document the spectacle of modern industry and the lives of ordinary people in a fast-changing world. She freelanced for various national magazines in the early 1940s and into the late 1960s. Bubley produced forty photo essays for Life, a dozen more for the Ladies’ Home Journal’s famous series, “How America Lives,” and numerous projects for non-profit organizations and major corporations alike. When career options for women were limited, Bubley rose to the top of an overwhelmingly male-dominated field.