"Ben Shahn, painter, muralist, and graphic artist, was also a talented photographer who made documentary street photographs in New York City in the early 1930s. This book is the first to focus on his compelling New York images, showing how he used a camera to comment on many social issues of his day.".

"The book considers the immediate social history of Shahn's New York photographs and analyzes how his leftist politics and his interest in news photographs and film affected his photographic aesthetic. The authors assert the importance of analyzing Shahn's paintings and photographs together, explaining why the connections between the two have been ignored until now.

The book reproduces not only Shahn's New York photographs but also his related paintings, prints, and drawings, and an appendix presents documents that speak to the impact of his photographic work."--BOOK JACKET.