In addition to her freelance work, some might know Roth as the longtime staff photographer of Lilith.
“The camera gave me a bigger purpose than just myself,” said former Detroiter Joan Roth in the opening scene of a documentary telling about her adventurous, five-decade career as a noted photojournalist and activist.
In addition to her freelance work, some might know Roth as the longtime staff photographer of Lilith. The Jewish women’s feminist magazine, under editor-in-chief Susan Weidman Schneider, is published in Roth’s adopted home of New York City.
Joan Roth
On June 18, as a treat for Roth reaching her 82nd birthday on June 4, she and her daughter, Melanie Roth Gorelick, joined family and friends invited to the local premiere of Gorelick’s film, A Feminist Lens: The Art & Activism of Photographer Joan Roth (afeministlens.com). Feminist icons provide narration for the short (28-minute) documentary. Released last year, it has been screened at eight film festivals to date, winning prizes at two. Groups can book a screening for programs; otherwise, the film is not being shown commercially.
Roth photographed Jewish women in their daily lives, such as this babushka lighting Shabbat candles with her granddaughter in Ukraine.
The event for 150, complete with complimentary popcorn and soft drinks, took place at the Emagine Royal Oak movie theater. Roth’s Michigan-based family were the evening’s hosts, including her sister, artist Marjorie Krasnick, and her sons and daughters-in-law, Dr. Neal and Sarah Krasnick; Steve and Jodi Krasnick, and Dr. Robert and Dr. Jane Krasnick. Major donors for the project were Marjorie Krasnick, the Reba Judith Sandler Foundation and the Dobkin Family Foundation.
Gorelick, CEO at Elluminate, an organization working for social change and gender justice, is the documentary’s writer as well as the executive producer. She worked in association with experienced director/producer Pamela French, her childhood friend. “Pamela is something like another daughter to me,” Roth said.
“It’s so meaningful, so extraordinary, that my family did this for me,” said Roth, who participated in a Q&A following the presentation.
A Noteworthy Career
Gorelick, a New Jersey resident, spent the COVID quarantine living with Roth. Their proximity spurred the daughter’s interest to organize hundreds of exhibit-level photos she found languishing in boxes in Roth’s apartment. Gorelick decided to make the documentary as a labor of love for her mother, focusing on Roth’s use of photography as an advocacy tool in making women’s lives visible.
The photographer’s body of work includes documenting homeless women in New York City, leaders of the U.S. women’s movement, such as Ms. magazine co-founder Gloria Steinem, and women she met throughout the world.
Roth photographed co-founders Gloria Steinem and Pat Carbine celebrating the 10th anniversary of Ms. magazine in 1982.
Roth first came to fame with a series of images she started taking in the 1970s for her book, Shopping Bag Ladies of New York City (St. Joan’s Press, 1982). She became friends with some of the homeless women and tried to help them, such as finding space for one woman to stay temporarily in a neighborhood flower shop.
Although “no one was interested when I started,” Roth became an advocate for her city to expand its inadequate women’s shelter. She continued using her camera to document women seeking justice, such as a photo on her website from the 2000s that shows a protest against rent hikes in New York.
“The first (homeless) lady I knew was seated on my street, in front of an apartment building doorway,” Roth said. “After I got to know her, she moved to a flowerbed ledge across the street.” The woman lived there for months “until the community installed a spike fence atop the ledge, leaving her with no place to sit or sleep, forcing her to move.”
Learning that women could be homeless — even those who are Jewish — was a revelation for Roth, who admits to having lived “such a perfect life” in Detroit.
She is the youngest of three children, including the sisters’ older brother, the late Burton Altman, who worked in real estate. Their Detroit-born mother, Clara June (Rubin) Altman, whom Joan described as “ethereal” and “an inventor,” came up with “the first hair curler.” But her invention, the Schoolgirl Curler, didn’t last because it required rubber, “which they couldn’t get during World War II,” Roth said. Their dentist father, Albert Altman, came to the U.S. as a young man from Ukraine. He had a policy of not charging his low-income patients. Roth grew up in her mother’s kosher home, with a synagogue-going father. Later in life, she became more observant again.
Roth said the teenaged Joan Altman, a member of Mumford High School’s Class of 1960, had no special interests and skipped school a lot — “I was always having fun.” She was 20 at the time of her marriage to Jac Roth, in her parents’ backyard. They moved to New York, where he joined his family’s business, and they raised Melanie and another daughter, social worker Alison Zingale, on Manhattan’s Upper East Side and in the Hamptons, within driving distance of New York.
Raising Consciousness
When Roth attended her first women’s consciousness-raising group, she realized she wanted to “do something” that would be just for herself. She and Jac divorced in 1971, because having career ambitions didn’t suit a husband holding traditional values.
Roth became interested in helping Ethiopian Jews during their crisis to leave the oppressive country.
After a little dabbling, Roth realized that photography, not film or theater, was her true calling. Her employment with a commercial photographer in the early 1970s led Roth to seeing a Museum of Modern Art (MoMa) exhibit that changed her life. It was work of the notable American photographer Diane Arbus, who died in 1971. Arbus’ black-and-white images of unexpected people evoked strong emotions in Roth. She decided to take a master-class workshop at the New School in New York with Arbus’ teacher, Austrian-American photographer Lisette Model (1901-1983). Model, whose work Roth already knew and admired, became her mentor and a lifelong friend. From her, Roth learned street photography principles, shooting in low light without flash, and using black-and-white film instead of color. Another great friend, Sid Kaplan, has printed all of her photos for more than 30 years.
Giving Roth wings was her businessman second husband, Leonard Sanders. They were married from 1988 until his death in 2011. “Lenny was always very supportive of my career,” she said.
Photographing Jewish Women
Around 1984, Roth became interested in helping Ethiopian Jews during their crisis to leave the oppressive country. That led to her joining American activist Susan Pollack in Ethiopia and taking a series of moving photos. Works from Roth’s book, The Jews of Ethiopia — a People in Transition, were exhibited in the Jewish Museum in New York and Beth Hatefutsoth (Anu-Museum of the Jewish People) in Tel Aviv. Her most recognizable photo shows an Ethiopian mother, Abbae, nursing her baby. “She told me she wanted me to take it in case she never made it out of the country,” Roth said.
America’s first woman rabbi, Sally Priesand, by Joan Roth, 2022, at the National Portrait Gallery
Operation Solomon, organized under Pollack’s leadership, was the name given to the daring, covert military operation that in 1991 airlifted thousands of Ethiopian Jews to Israel.
After Ethiopia, Roth made a career decision to turn her lens on capturing the images of Jewish women worldwide. Since then, some of their Jewish communities no longer exist. The intimacy of these photos shows how the women trusted Roth. She bridged any language barriers encountered on her frequently self-financed journeys. Dressed unobtrusively in black, Roth spent 12 years photographing the daily life of women and girls in more than 40 places, including Kenya, China, Morocco, India and the former Soviet Union. The resultant book, published in 1995, is Jewish Women: A World of Tradition and Change.
The photographer is still active in her 80s, so much so that Gorelick said additional sections may be added to her mother’s documented story. Works by the acclaimed photographer are displayed in museums and featured in limited exhibitions, especially in Israel and New York.
Joan Roth, her daughter Melanie Roth Gorelick and Joan’s sister Marjorie Krasnick
Roth is represented in a current exhibit, “Artists on Antisemitism.” The Manhattan-based multimedia show can be viewed through Aug. 30 at 81 Leonard Gallery, in association with Jewish Art Salon (JAS).
“We use our voices to counter antisemitic and anti-Israel messages all around us and aim to counter isolation with connection,” according to the JAS website.
A display of Roth’s photos was included in Jewish Art Salon’s 2024 Spring Jerusalem Biennale, which ran March 12-April 29. Titled “ACTIVATE: A New York Women’s Perspec-tive,” the exhibit featured diverse contemporary feminist artists. Roth was among those presenting visual political statements in response to the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack on Israel, and Israel’s ongoing war against the organization in Gaza.
Especially exciting for Roth, she said, was having Black Box Gallery present her display, “Jewish Women: A World of Tradition and Change,” to open the aforementioned Jerusalem Biennale.
“I had 6-foot photos in light boxes on Jaffa Street in Jerusalem,” Roth said.
A recent honor for Roth concerns the photograph she took in 2022 of Rabbi Sally Priesand, commissioned to mark the 50th anniversary of Priesand’s ordination as the first U.S. woman rabbi. The National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C, informed Roth that her photo will be added to the collection.
“I’m among the few Jewish woman to have a portrait in that prestigious gallery,” Roth said.
The Joan Roth Legacy
Melanie Roth Gorelick is the founder of Making Women Visible: The Joan Roth Legacy Project, intended to preserve her mother’s photographic collection as a contribution to Jewish history. The project, according to Gorelick’s mission statement, “will inspire and empower young women, activists and philanthropists by showcasing how women’s courage and humanity have changed — and continue to change — the world.” Charitable, tax-deductible contributions to the Joan Roth Legacy Project are sought. For information, email makingwomenvisibleproject@gmail.com or call (917) 331-4428.
