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ASMP New England: The Life and Legacy of Photographer Ted Polumbaum
October 28, 2021 @ 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm EDT
Join Ted’s daughter Judy and photographer Lou Jones for a conversation – with pictures! – about the remarkable life and important work of an ASMP stalwart who was both of and ahead of his times. Ted Polumbaum (1924-2001), a Boston-based freelancer for LIFE magazine and many other publications, joined ASMP in 1958 (when M still stood for Magazine). A staunch advocate for creative rights and fair compensation (although a soft touch for good causes), Ted was a widely admired colleague (too nice to inspire envy), mentor to many younger photographers, social activist, goofball and punster, and all-around good guy. Lou Jones, another ASMP icon, knew Ted well.
Twenty years since Ted’s death, his daughter Judy has completed a new book about his personal and professional story and the tumultuous times in which he lived and worked – All Available Light: The Life and Legacy of Photographer Ted Polumbaum (McFarland Press, 2001). Through the month of October, the publisher is offering a 30 percent discount on copies purchased through its website; use the code POLUMBAUM30 at checkout from this link:
https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/all-available-light/
Ted became a photographer inadvertently. As with many in that storied Greatest Generation, he’d gone off to World War II and returned to finish college on the GI Bill. He was working for United Press in Boston when the U.S. House Committee on Un-American Activities derailed his news-writing career. Fingered for his membership in a progressive student group in college and summoned to Washington DC to testify at hearings on “Communist subversion in education,” Ted defied the Congressional inquisitors and suffered the usual consequences – he was fired, blacklisted, and trailed (for four decades!) by the FBI…Read more