Mel Rosenthal Papers, 1967–1987

Mel Rosenthal (1940–2017) was a freelance photographer, teacher, and social activist. He grew up in Morrisania in the 1940s–1950s. He obtained a B.A. in Literature from City University of New York in 1961 and a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Connecticut in 1967. He became interested in photography while working with Paulo Friere in a UNESCO-sponsored literacy program in Africa.

In 1975, Rosenthal returned to the South Bronx to work at Dr. Martin Luther King Health Clinic where he taught health and literacy. He also taught photography as a faculty member of Empire State College. Shortly after his return to The Bronx, Rosenthal was prompted to begin photographing the people around him because, in his words, there were few accurate or positive images of the poor and working-class people of the South Bronx. 

In a career that spanned over 50 years, he photographed people all over the world, including in Cuba, Nicaragua, and Vietnam, and exhibited his photographs widely. In 2000, he published some of his South Bronx photographs in a collection entitlted In the South Bronx of America.

Information for this biography was gathered from an article in the May 11, 2001 issue of The New York Times, as well as from the documents in this collection.

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