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PIX Publishing Inc.

  • PIX Publishing Inc. was a photo agency founded in New York in 1935 by photo agent Leon Daniel and Celia Kutschuk, together with German émigré photographers Alfred Eisenstaedt and George Karger.
  • PIX Publishing Inc.
  • Photo Agency
  • PIX Publishing Inc. was a photo agency founded in New York in 1935 by photo agent Leon Daniel and Celia Kutschuk, together with German émigré photographers Alfred Eisenstaedt and George Karger.

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  • Leon Daniel was born in Romania and grew up in Germany, where he worked as picture manager at the Berlin office of Associated Press, the press photo agency. Celia Kutschuk (a Ukrainian émigré and aunt of the photographer Jerry Cooke) and Alfred Eisenstaedt also worked at Associated Press and the three knew each other before their emigration to New York. The German émigré Franz Furst, who arrived around 1936 to New York, was probably the picture agent of PIX (and later vice president).

    Together with the Black Star, Rapho Guillemette, Modernage, Monkmeyer, European Picture Service and Three Lions photo agencies, PIX provided an important network hub for emigrant photographers and photojournalist who had fled Europe for New York. Located at 250 Park Avenue, PIX was close to the Black Star Agency and to the headquarters of such magazines as Life and U.S. Camera, and also close to Grand Central Terminal. This was an advantageous location as trains were an important and reliable means of transportation for pictures at the time. In addition to Eisenstaedt and Karger, PIX Publishing also represented the work of émigrés Josef Breitenbach, Fred Stein, Lilo Hess, Ernest Rathenau, Wolfgang (Wolf) Suschitzky, Otto F. Hess, Robert Capa, John Gutmann, as well as British-born Cecil Beaton and the Americans Nina Leen, Marion Post-Wolcott and Eileen Darby, and many more. Like Black Star, PIX charged fifty percent commission on the pictures they sold, as can be gleaned from the correspondence between Leon Daniel and Fred Stein. (As a matter of interest, in the late 1930s and early 1940s, an apartment rental in Manhattan cost between $50 and $150, depending on location, with $20 corresponding to about $300 in today's money.) The agency also provided work as darkroom technical assistants for newly-arrived émigré photographers still establishing their careers, as in the case of Werner Wolff.

    In the 1970s the PIX archive was integrated with the Klinsky Press Agency collection and is now part of the huge collection of photojournalistic and press images located at the Gallery of Ontario.

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  • 250 Park Avenue, Midtown Manhattan, New York City.

  • Letterhead of PIX Inc. – Correspondence Daniel Leon with Fred Stein, 1943, cropped detail (© Fred Stein Archive).
  • Letterhead of PIX Inc. – Correspondence Daniel Leon with Fred Stein, 1943 (© Fred Stein Archive).
    Mention of PIX Publishing in a photographic guide (Ahlers 1953, p. 46).
  • Ahlers, Arvel W. Where & how to sell your pictures. Photography Publishing Corp., 1953.

    Bouqueret, Christian. Des années folles. Aux années noires. La nouvelle vision photographique en France 1920–1940. Marval, 1997.

    Blaschke, Estelle. Photography and the Commodification of Images: from the Bettmann Archive to Corbis (ca. 1924–2010) (doctoral thesis). École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, 2011. issuu. Accessed 2 March 2021.

    Gervais, Thierry. The Making of Visual News. A History of Photography in the Press. Translated by John Tittenson, Bloomsbury, 2017.

    Kornfeld, Phoebe. Passionate Publishers. The Founders of the Black Star Photo Agency. University of Missouri Press, 2021.

    Morris, John Godfrey. Get the Picture. A Personal History of Photojournalism. University of Chicago Press, 2002.

    New York Photography 1890–1950. Von Stieglitz bis Man Ray, edited by Ortrud Westheider and Michael Philipp, exh. cat Bucerius Kunst Forum, Hamburg, 2012.

    Smith, C. Zoe. “Emigré photography in America: contributions of German photojournalism from Black Star Picture Agency to Life magazine, 1933–1938.” (unpublished dissertation, School of Journalism in the Graduate College of the University of Iowa, Iowa City, December 1983).

    Smith, C. Zoe. “Black Star Picture Agency: Life’s European Connection.” Journalism History, vol. 13, no. 1, 1986, pp. 19–25.

    Smith, C. Zoe. “Die Bildagentur ‘Black Star’. Inspiration für eine neue Magazinfotografie in den USA.” Kommunikation visuell. Das Bild als Forschungsgegenstand – Grundlagen und Perspektiven, edited by Thomas Knieper and Marion G. Müller, Herbert von Halem, 2001, pp. 240–249.

    Solomon, Leo M. There’s Money in Pictures. Newsweek, 1951.

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  • My deepest thanks go to Peter Stein for providing me with photographs and archival material of the Estate of Fred Stein, who was commissioned for Pix Publishing.

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  • Helene Roth
  • 01-11-1935
  • 1969
  • Cecil Beaton, Josef Breitenbach, Robert Capa, Leon Daniel, Eileen Darby, Alfred Eisenstaedt, John Gutmann, Otto F. Hess, Nina Leen, Marion Post-Wolcott, Fred Stein and Werner Wolff and many more.

  • New York
  • No
  • Helene Roth. "PIX Publishing Inc.." METROMOD Archive, 2021, https://archive.metromod.net/viewer.p/69/2948/object/5145-9603669, last modified: 03-03-2022.
  • Werner Wolff
    Photographer
    New York

    Werner Wolff was forced to leave Germany in 1936 due to his Jewish background and emigrated via Hamburg to New York, where he could follow his career as photographer and photojournalist.

    Word Count: 30

    Fred Stein
    PhotographerLawyer
    New York

    Always accompanied by his camera, the German émigré photographer Fred Stein discovered New York City during the 1940s and 1950s. His pictures provide an human and multifaceted view of the metropolis.

    Word Count: 31

    Lotte Jacobi
    Photographer
    New York

    In October 1935 the German émigré photographer Lotte Jacobi, together with her sister Ruth Jacobi, opened a photo studio on 57th Street. The two sisters had to leave their parents' photo studio in Berlin in the 1930s and emigrated to New York.

    Word Count: 41

    Lilo Hess
    Photographer
    New York

    The German émigré Lilo Hess was an animal photographer working for the Museum for Natural History and the Bronx Zoo, as well being a freelance photographer and publisher of children's books.

    Word Count: 31

    Manhattan Magic. A collection of eighty-five photographs
    Photobook
    New York

    Manhattan Magic is a photobook which was published in 1937 by the German émigré photographer Mario Bucovich in New York City.

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    Black Star Agency
    Photo Agency
    New York

    The German émigrés Kurt S(z)afranski, Ern(e)st Mayer and Kurt Kornfeld founded Black Star in 1936. The photo agency established was a well-run networking institution in New York.

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    Leco Photo Service
    Photo Lab
    New York

    Leco Photo Service was a photofinishing lab, highly-frequented and a contact hub for émigré photographers and photo agencies during the 1930s and 1940s, as well as a provider of employment for women in the photo industry.

    Word Count: 36

    Schocken Books
    Publishing House
    New York

    Schocken Books was a publishing house established in 1945 in New York by the Russian émigré Salman Schocken (1898–1959). It specialised in books on Judaica and Hebrew topics.

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    Camera Features
    Photo Agency
    New York

    Camera Features was a photo agency founded by the photographer Werner Wolff and other colleagues of the photo agency PIX.

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    Rapho Guillumette
    Photo Agency
    New York

    Founded in 1940 by the emigrant Charles Rado (1899–1970), Rapho Guillumette was a picture agency.

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    Three Lions Inc.
    Photo Agency
    New York

    Little is known about this photo agency, which was founded by two German émigré brothers, Max Georg and Walter Löwenherz in 1937 in New York

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    Photo-Representatives
    Photo Agency
    New York

    Photo-Representatives was a photo agency founded by the photographers Erika Stone and Anita Beer in 1953.

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    European Picture Service
    Photo Agency
    New York

    The European Picture Service was a photo agency located in Midtown Manhattan founded, probably in 1930, by the émigré photographer Max Peter Haas (1901–1985).

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    Pavelle Laboratories Inc.
    Photo LabPhoto Supplier
    New York

    Pavelle Laboratories was found in 1936 by Leo and Carmen Pavelle and operated on East 42nd Street. It was specialised in the development of miniature camera film and one of the first labs working with colour film.

    Word Count: 36

    Modernage Photographic Services Inc
    Photo Lab
    New York

    Modernage Photographic Services was founded in 1944 by the German émigrés Ralph and Leuba Baum and specialised in photofinishing services. In 1954 a second branch, Modernage Custom Darkrooms, was opened.

    Word Count: 29

    Monkmeyer Photo Service
    Photo Agency
    New York

    The Monkmeyer Photo Service photo agency was founded around 1935/36 by the German émigrés Hilde and Paul August Monkmeyer in New York City.

    Word Count: 23

    Josef Breitenbach
    Photographer
    New York

    On arriving in New York in 1941, the German photographer Josef Breitenbach tried to restart as a portrait, street and experimental photographer, as well as a teacher of photo-history and techniques.

    Word Count: 30

    Wolf Suschitzky
    PhotographerCinematographer
    London

    The Viennese Wolf Suschitzky made a career as a photographer and cinematographer after emigrating to London in 1935.

    Word Count: 17