Photographers

Rosalind Fox Solomon (April 2, 1930 – June 23, 2025) was an American photographer known for her intense and psychologically powerful portraits exploring mortality, ritual, identity, and human vulnerability. Working primarily in black and white, her photographs often confront difficult subjects with directness and empathy, creating images that are both intimate and unsettling.

Born in Highland Park, Illinois, Solomon studied political science at Goucher College and graduated in 1951. Before turning to photography, she worked in cultural and international exchange programs, including the Experiment in International Living. These experiences exposed her to diverse societies and later influenced the global scope of her photographic work.

Solomon began photographing in 1968 while volunteering in Japan. What started as a personal way to record her experiences soon developed into a lifelong artistic practice. After returning to the United States, she studied photography and worked with the influential photographer Lisette Model, who encouraged her direct and emotionally honest style.

Over the following decades, Solomon photographed widely across the United States, Latin America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. Her work often focused on rituals, religious ceremonies, illness, and communities living through social or political tension. In the late 1980s she produced a notable series of portraits of people living with AIDS, later exhibited as Portraits in the Time of AIDS.

Solomon published several photobooks, including Chapalingas and Polish Shadow, and her work is held in major museum collections such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. In 2019 she received the International Center of Photography’s Infinity Award for Lifetime Achievement.