Ruth Orkin

Ruth Orkin was one of the professional photographers of the 1940s and 1950s. Although she published in numerous newspapers and magazines, such as the New York Times, Life and Look, and her photographs were part of the legendary exhibition "The Family of Man" at MoMA, her work, which can be compared to that of the great photographers of her time, is still little known internationally.

Ruth Orkin began taking photographs at the age of ten. Her first major photographic work was taken in 1939. At the age of 17, she travelled across the USA by bicycle and camera, once from L.A. to New York for the World's Fair. She moved there in 1943.

One of her most important photographs is "American Girl in Italy" from 1951, which became a symbol of the women's movement of the 1960s and 1970s. For the photograph, she portrayed her travelling acquaintance Ninalee Craig (Jinx Allen) surrounded by men in Florence in 1951. Jinx became her friend and muse and inspired her to create an entire series that shows with an ironic eye what it was like to be a woman travelling alone in the 1950s.

With biting humour, the photographer created reportages such as "Who Works Harder?", which compares the life of a housewife and mother with that of a career woman. What Ruth Orkin's subtle but radically subversive images capture are pictures of women on the move who are beginning to shed the conventions imposed on them and go their own way: self-confident, stylish, smart and ahead of their time. She also photographed the big stars of Hollywood: Lauren Bacall, Jane Russel and Doris Day.

The photographer's most extensive exhibition in Germany to date is based on the works from f3 - Freiraum für Fotografie in Berlin, which have been presented in two solo exhibitions in 2021 and 2023. The works, which were curated by Katharina Mouratidi and Nadine Barth in Berlin, are being shown in Germany for only the second time ever.

Last edited on 30.10.2025