Jacob Lofman

Jacob Lofman (August 31, 1911, Poland–February 8, 2002, New York) was a Polish-born American photojournalist.

After emigrating to the United States he became a professional photographer; his work was widely distributed through the agency PIX, Inc.

His photographic work  was distributed for many years by the agency, PIX, Inc. His pictures appeared mass-market and specialist magazines including Popular Photography, The Saturday Evening Post, The Farm Quarterly, Ebony, Finance, Minicam Photography, Collier’s, Saturday Review, U.S. Camera, Art Direction , New Politics, Review of international affairs, The Grace Log , The American Magazine, Business Week, The Rocket, The Nation's Business, Fortune, Time, Life, Broadcasting, Look, Photo-graphic: The Annual of America's Leading Photographers, House and Garden, Harper's Bazaar, The creative writer , Coronet, The New York Times Book Review.

Among the many celebrities he photographed were Robert Frost and Sugar Ray Robinson, and one of his photographs  included in the historic "Family of Man" Exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in 1955 is a long-shot of American poet Robert Frost with his  children & grandchildren sitting on logs in sun a clearing in front of backdrop of the Green Mountains listening folk singer Danny Gragon, who plays fiddle.

Lofman oined the Socialist Zionist organization, Hashomer Hatzair at an early age and maintained his interest in Jewish history and culture.<ref>Jacob Lofman Gilbert, George (1996), The illustrated worldwide who's who of Jews in photography (1st ed.), G. Gilbert, p. 54, ISBN 978-0-9656012-0-7  Involved with organisations devoted to Socialist Zionism and various forms of socialism (including, for some years, Trotskyism), he remained a member the group in the U.S. and wrote for its New York-based publication, Hashomer Hatzair. Read widely in Jewish culture and socialist politics, in several languages, he was associated with a number of socialist groups and parties in the U.S. Having followed Max Shachtman in the late 1930s he became a member of Shachtman's Workers Party in the 40s but resigned from the Party following a dispute with Shachtman in about 1948. Involved with the Socialist Party in the 1950s and with Michael Harrington's Democratic Socialists of America in the 1960s and 70s, and eventually with Social Democrats, USA, he continued to read widely in leftist political literature, was a speaker on left and Jewish themes, and wrote for a number of newspapers, journals and newsletters over the years.

Personal life

Lofman and his wife, Rivke, had no children.

Collections

The Roy Stryker Study Collection, Henry Holmes Smith Archive