An Interview with Romana Javitz, 23 February 1965

In interview, Romana Javitz (1903-80), the then head of the Picture Collection of the New York Public Library, discusses her work. She considers the importance of photographs as documents rather than art, comments on the images from the Historical Section of the Farm Security Administration, and highlights the qualities of the photographer Walker Evans. She considers the exhibitions The Bitter Years held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (1962) and The Family of Man at the same venue (1955), examines the influence of advertising on photography, and emphasizes the need for societies to document their times. She also discusses the work of the photographers Dorothea Lange, Russell Lee, Ben Shahn, Roy Stryker, Eugène Atget, and Berenice Abbott.