Photographer Who Documented Jewish Lower East Side, Dies at 98
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
Rebecca Lepkoff, a photographer who documented Jewish life on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, has died. Lepkoff, who grew up in a Jewish neighborhood there, died Sunday at 98.
Her series of photographs showing the Lower East Side was taken in the 1940s and 1950s.
Lepkoff lived a portion of the year in Vermont, where she photographed the hippie community of Pikes Falls, according to an obituary in the Commons, a Vermont publication.
In New York, she was a member of the Photo League, a group of acclaimed photographers who aimed to photograph how ordinary people lived. The group was disbanded during the Red Scare of the 1950s.
“She lived a long and incredible life,” said her son, Jesse, according to the Commons. “She was an amazing artist, mother and person.”
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