MURRAY KORMAN

This site...

... is dedicated to the promotion and preservation of the artistry of New York City photographer, Murray Korman. His meteoric rise to fame and fortune was equaled only by his rapid fall into relative obscurity. A budding artist in the early years of the 20th century, by the 1930s Korman turned to the camera as his primary tool for artistic expression. Through talent and determination, he eventually owned two of the most prosperous studios in New York City, and was labeled by The New Yorker Magazine as “The One Big Name.” But poor business management, competition, and the shifting sands of the New York fashion scene sent Korman’s career into a tailspin. He died in 1961, poor and alone, his massive portfolio scattered and virtually forgotten.

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Korman's heirs received no monetary compensation but were given a massive amount of large-format negatives. The collection was much too large to store so the decision was made to keep approximately 600, which were packed away, not to be seen for almost half a century.

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Then, by a most unusual set of circumstances connections were made with outside sources, and the inheritance was resurrected. The negatives were pulled from the dusty boxes in the closet and over a period of 12 months, meticulously scanned and archived. It's a portion of these 600+ images that populate the galleries on this web site.

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For obvious reasons the galleries on our Portfolio page do not contain the entire collection but will be refreshed as often as possible, offering a new series of rarely seen images. Please visit again soon.