Elsa Dorfman

Elsa Dorfman
Self-portrait of Elsa Dorfman in her studio
Born	(1937-04-26)April 26, 1937 Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died	May 30, 2020(2020-05-30) (aged 83) Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Photographer
Spouse	Harvey Silverglate (1976–2020)

Elsa Dorfman (April 26, 1937 – May 30, 2020) was an American portrait photographer. She worked in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was known for her use of a large-format instant Polaroid camera.

Life and work

Dorfman's principal published work, originally published in 1974, was Elsa's Housebook - A Woman's Photojournal, a photographic record of family and friends who visited her in Cambridge when she lived there during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Many well known people, especially literary figures associated with the Beat generation, are prominent in the book, including Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky, Gary Snyder, Gregory Corso, and Robert Creeley, in addition to people who would become notable in other fields, such as radical feminist Andrea Dworkin and civil rights lawyer Harvey A. Silverglate (who would become Dorfman's husband). She also photographed staples of the Boston rock scene such as Jonathan Richman frontman of The Modern Lovers, and Steven Tyler of Aerosmith.

Portrait of Bob Dylan and Allen Ginsberg, 1975.

Dorfman moved to New York City in 1959 and found a job as a secretary to the editors at Grove Press, a leading Beat publisher. When she later moved home to Cambridge to pursue her master's degree, she called herself the "Paterson Society" and began arranging readings for many Beat authors who had become friends, maintaining an active correspondence with them as they traveled the world. By 1962, she was teaching fifth grade. A year later, in 1963, Dorfman began working for the Educational Development Corporation whose photographer, George Cope, introduced her to photography in June 1965. She made her first sale two months later, in August 1965, for $25 of a photograph of Charles Olson which was used on the cover of his book The Human Universe. Due to economic limitations, she did not buy her own camera until 1967, when she sent a check for $150 to Philip Whalen who was then in Kyoto, Japan, and he in turn enlisted Gary Snyder, who could speak Japanese, to purchase the camera and mail it to her. In May 1968, she moved into the Flagg Street house which would become the basis of her Housebook.

She was known for her use of a Polaroid 20 by 24 inch camera (one of only 6 in existence), from which she created large prints. She photographed famous writers, poets, and musicians including Bob Dylan and Allen Ginsberg. Due to bankruptcy, the Polaroid Corporation entirely ceased production of its unique instant film products in 2008. Dorfman stocked up with a year's supply of her camera's last available 20 x 24 instant film.

Dorfman's life and work were the subject of the 2016 documentary film The B-Side: Elsa Dorfman's Portrait Photography, directed by Errol Morris.

Some photographs by Dorfman

• 
  Allen Ginsberg
• 
  Gail Mazur and Gordon Cairnie at Grolier
• 
  Denise Levertov
• 
  Anais Nin
• 
  Bruce Cratsley

Raising awareness

Dorfman suggested elements of healing through her work in a variety of ways. She photographed terminal cancer patients, emphasizing their dignity. In 1995, she collaborated with graphic artist Marc A. Sawyer to illustrate the booklet 40 Ways to Fight the Fight Against AIDS. She photographed people, both with and without AIDS, each engaged in one of forty activities that might help AIDS victims in their daily life. The photographs were exhibited 1995 at the Lotus Development Corporation in Cambridge, in Provincetown and in New York City. The artist donated the costs of producing the photographs for this project.

Dorfman co-starred in the documentary No Hair Day (1999) as she's taking the portraits of three women undergoing treatment for breast cancer.

Personal life and death

In 1967, Dorfman met Harvey Silverglate, who was the defense attorney in a drug trial. Dorfman thought the case could be the subject of a book and sought him out, after which Silverglate asked to take a portrait of him and his brother to give to their mother. They married nearly a decade later, in 1976.

Dorfman died of kidney failure at her Cambridge home on May 30, 2020. She was 83 years old.

External links

• Official website
• Elsa Dorfman photographs, 1957-1970, University Archives and Special Collections, Joseph P. Healey Library, University of Massachusetts Boston