Naomi Rosenblum

Rosenblum during FotoArtFestival 2007 in Poland. Photo by Piotr Bieniecki Naomi Rosenblum, PhD, (January 26, 1925 – February 19, 2021) was an American historian of photography. She was the author of A World History of Photography (1984) and A History of Women Photographers (1994), and wrote widely on photography. Her work helped bring greater recognition to photography as a creative and scholarly field.

While researching photographers for A World History of Photography, Rosenblum noticed that women photographers were often relegated to the back pages of magazines. She later explained in an interview for Exposure: "I would make a little card and just file it away because I knew I couldn't get them all into the World History." In 1990, Rosenblum was named a Getty scholar in residence in Los Angeles, where she received a fellowship to research women's contributions to photography. This work culminated in her second influential book, A History of Women Photographers, published in 1994.

She also curated and co-curated several photography exhibitions and contributed to exhibition catalogs that helped contextualize the work of photographers for both scholarly and public audiences.

Select publications America and Lewis Hine: Photographs 1904 to 1940, Aperture, 1977. A World History of Photography, Abbeville Press, 1984. Changing Chicago: A Photodocumentary (Visions of Illinois), with Larry Heinemann, University of Illinois Press, 1989. Orgeval: A Remembrance of Paul Strand, Lumiere Press,1990. Seeing Straight: The F.64 Revolution in Photography, edited by Therese Thau Heyman, University of Washington Press/Oakland Museum, 1992. A History of Women Photographers, Abbeville Press, 1994. Photo League: New York 1936–1951. Catalog of an exhibition curated by Enrica Vigano; texts by Naomi Rosenblum and Enrica Vigano. Trieste: Il Ramo d’Oro Ed., 2001. Strand + Rosenblum: Corrispondenze Elettive/Enduring Friendship, foreword by Rosenblum, Admira Edizioni, Milan, Italy, 2011. Paul Strand: The Stieglitz Years at 291 (1915–1917), with Paul Strand, New York: Zabriskie, 1983

Select exhibitions Lewis Hine: A Retrospective, co-curated with Walter Rosenblum and Barbara Millstein, Brooklyn Museum, 1977. Lewis Hine: A Retrospective, National Art Museum of China, Beijing, 1980. First official loan from an American museum to China. Kraszna-Krausz Book Award: Finalist Aperture Foundation Gala: Honoree