Onward Image Book cover

The work of N. Jay Jaffee has been exhibited in solo and group shows, including the 2011–2012 exhibit, “The Radical Camera: New York’s Photo League, 1936–1951″ at the Jewish Museum. and the 50-year retrospective, “Coney Island to Caumsett: The Photographic Journey of N. Jay Jaffee: 1947–1997” at the Heckscher Museum in 1999. His work has also appeared in numerous books and articles.

Solo Shows

2018 “Urban Study,” Binghamton University, Binghamton, NY
2014 “N. Jay Jaffee Photographs: From Public to Private, 1947–1997,” University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD
2012 “A History of Photography/Focus on N. Jay Jaffee,” Course by Professor Mimi Hellman, Skidmore College and the Tang Teaching Museum, Saratoga Springs, NY
1999 “Coney Island to Caumsett: The Photographic Journey of N. Jay Jaffee: 1947–1997,” Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, NY
1997 “Always Towards the Light: 50 Years in Photography,” Port Washington Public Library, Port Washington, NY
1991 “Social Landscapes: The Post War Years,” Photofind Gallery, New York, NY Chapel Art Center, Manchester, NH
1989 St. Michael’s College, Winooski, VT
1987 New Community Cinema, Huntington, NY
1986 Snite Museum of Art, Notre Dame, IN
1985 “Inward Image,” Staten Island Institute of Arts and Science, Staten Island, NY
1984 Sea Cliff Gallery, Long Island, New York
1983 Neikrug Gallery, New York, NY
1982 “Inward Image,” Impressions Gallery of Photography, York, England
Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC
First Los Angeles Bank, Newport Beach, CA
1981 “Inward Image,” Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY (Catalog Excerpt)
New York Gallery of Photographs, New Haven, CT
Books & Co., New York, NY
1979 The Harlequin, Sea Cliff, NY
1980 Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach, CA
1959 Brooklyn Public Library, Brooklyn, NY

Group Shows

2021 “Touchstones of the Twentieth Century: A History of Photography at the University of Notre Dame,” Snite Museum of Art, Notre Dame, Indiana
2018 “The Heckscher Collects: Recent Acquisitions,” The Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, NY
“Unexpected Encounters,” Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO
2017 “Subjective Objective: A Century of Social Photography,” Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ
“Reflect: Photography Looking Forward, Looking Back,” Luther W. Brady Art Gallery. The George Washington University. Washington, DC
2015 “On the Scene: 20th Century Street Photography,” Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA
2016 “Street Life: Private Moments/Public Record,” The Heckscher Museum, Huntington, NY
“Before Selfies; Portraiture through the Ages,” The Heckscher Museum, Huntington, NY
2013 Bearing Witness: Sonia Handleman Meyer and the New York Photo League,” The Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC
Landscape into Abstraction,” Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, CA
Off the Wall: Sculpture from the Permanent Collection,” The Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, NY
2012 “City Scenes: Highlights of New York Photography,” The Museum of the City of New York, NY
African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond,” The Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington. D.C.
2011 The Radical Camera: New York’s Photo League 1936–1951,” The Jewish Museum, New York, NY  (Also at the Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH; Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, CA; Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL.)
New York, New York,” Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, NY
“Davidson Collects: 100 Writers Respond to Art,” Van Every/Smith Galleries, Davidson College, Davidson, NC
Frost Drawing Project,” Frost Art Museum, Florida International University, Miami, FL
2007 “Picturing Long Island: Abstract, Figurative and Historical,” Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, NY
2006 The Photo League and Its Legacy (1936–2006),” New York Public Library, New York, NY
1998 “Eight Million Stories: 20th Century New York Life in Prints and Photographs from the New York Public Library,” New York Public Library, New York, NY
1997 “Brooklyn, New York, U.S.A.” Bonni Benrubi Gallery, New York, NY
1996 World Trade Center Museum, Nanko, Osaka, Japan
1994 “An American Century of Photography,” International Center of Photography, New York, NY (traveling show)
1993 “The Photo League, 1936–1951,” 292 Gallery, New York, NY
1992 “Recent Acquisitions,” New York Public Library, New York, NY
1991 “The Great New York Show, Part III,” Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York, NY
1990 “Structural Symbols,” Dimock Gallery, George Washington University, Washington, DC
“The Photo League,” Gild Hall Museum, East Hampton, NY
1989 “The Lyric Document,” Madison Gallery, Madison, CT
“Faculty Exhibition,” Hillwood Art Gallery, C.W. Post College, Brookville, NY
1988 Davidson Art Gallery, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT
“Photography, 1900-1988,” Madison Gallery, Madison, CT
Fred Pine Gallery, Manhasset, NY
“New York, New York,” Photofind Gallery, New York, NY
1987 “Generations,” Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
1986 “Curator’s Choice,” Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY
1985 Dimock Gallery, George Washington University, Washington, DC
1981 “Autoportraits,” Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
1982 “A Group Experience,” Neikrug Gallery, New York, NY
1979 “101 Photographs from the Brooklyn Museum Collection,” Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
“A New York Album,” Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
1950 “Fifty-One American Photographers,” The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY

Books

Jaffee, N. Jay. Photographs, 1947–1955. Henley Graphics, 1976.

Books Containing Photographs by N. Jay Jaffee

Abramovitch, Ilana and Sean Galvin, eds. Jews of Brooklyn. Boston, MA: Brandeis University Press, 2002.

Acton, David. A History of Photography at Notre Dame: Twentieth Century. Giles, Ltd, 2019. See the essay about “Learning to Skate” by David Action here.

Cohn, Anna and Lucinda Leach, eds. Generations: A Family Album. New York: Pantheon Books/Smithsonian Institution, 1987.

Davis, Keith, ed. American Century of Photography: From Dry-Plate to Digital. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1995.

Davis, Keith, ed. The Life and Work of Sid Grossman. Steidl and Howard Greenberg Gallery, 2016.

Eastman Kodak Company. The New Joy of Photography. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1987.

Eastman Kodak Company. Photographing Your Baby. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley Publishing Company, 1985.

Frederickson, Tom, Claire Cass, and Stephen Daiter. This Was the Photo League: Compassion and the Camera from the Depression to the Cold War. Chicago, IL: Stephen Daiter Gallery, 2001.

Klaus, Marshall and Phyllis. The Amazing Newborn. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1985; reprinted by Perseus Books, 2000.

Klein, Mason and Catherine Evans. The Radical Camera: New York’s Photo League, 1936–1951. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2011.

Moore, Deborah Dash. Jewish New York. NYU Press, 2017.

Perry. Rachel Berensen. The Life and Art of Felrath Hines: From Dark to Light. Indiana University Press, 2018. (See also article about the book in “Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History,” Indiana Historical Press, Fall 2018)

Powell, Richard J., Virginia Mecklenburg, and Theresa Slowik. African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, The Civil Rights Movement, and Beyond. Skira Rizzoli, 2012.

Rock, Howard B and Deborah Dash Moore, eds. Cityscapes: A History of New York in Images. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001.

Tradition and the Unpredictable. Boston, MA: The Museum of Fine Arts, 1994.

Willensky, Elliot. When Brooklyn Was the World. New York: Harmony Books, 1986.

Catalogues

The Two Collection, WGBH Educational Foundation, 1999, 2000, 2001.

5th Annual Friends of Friends Photo Auction, Friends Without Borders, 2001.

Coney Island to Caumsett: The Photographic Journey of N. Jay Jaffee, 1947–1997. Heckscher Museum of Art,
Huntington, NY, 1999.

Kobe Aid Fund, World Photo Art Exhibition and Auction, Japan, 1995.

Contemporary Photographs, The Dimock Gallery, George Washington University, 1981.

Autoportraits Photographiques, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France, 1981.

Inward Image, Photographs by N. Jay Jaffee, The Brooklyn Museum, 1981.

Catalogue of Limited Edition Photographs, privately printed, 1979.

Articles about N. Jay Jaffee

Baldwin, Roger. “Humanist Vision Through a Lens.” The New Haven Advocate, October 7, 1981.

Bernstein, Judith. “Light Shadows,” Newsday, August 19, 1999.

Interview. Sun Storm, Sea Cliff, New York, December 1979.

“Lloyd Harbor Photographer in Smithsonian.” The Long Islander, February 22, 1993.

Murray, Alice. “Interview.” The Sunday Daily News, October 4, 1981.

“N. Jay Jaffee, Photographer Who Captured City Life,” Obituary, Newsday, March 14, 1999.

Rayner, Vivian. “Shows of Images on Film,” The New York Times, January 27, 1985.

Senf, Bret. “After 50 Years, Looking for Fresh Images,” The New York Times, December 22, 1996.

Other Publications and Resources

Blake Avenue Market” East New York Stories (website)

Deli Man (documentary film), directed by Erik Greenberg Anjou, 2014.

Genzlinger, Neil. “Muriel Manings: Dancer in a Politically Charged Era, Dies at 95.” The New York Times, November 6, 2018.

“Inward Image: Photographs of N. Jay Jaffee,” The Brooklyn Museum, 1981

In Memoriam” by Julia Van Haaften

Past and Present New York Through a Comparative Study of Photography and Poetry” by Jane K. Marshall (Yale University Course, 1981)