Morton Broffman and Jules Aarons never met. But both Bronx-born sons of Jewish immigrants moved through the 20th century with cameras in hand and a shared eye for humanity. \u201cBronx Boys: Storytelling with a Lens,\u201d now on view at The Breman, brings their photography work together for the first time in Atlanta.<\/p>\n
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Jules Aarons\u2019s \u201cSpaceman, West End,\u201d shot in Boston\u2019s West End neighborhood, reflects the street spirit and quiet observation that defined his photographic practice. The image is part of \u201cBronx Boys: Storytelling with a Lens,\u201d on view at The Breman in Midtown Atlanta. (Jules Aarons\/Courtesy The Breman)<\/p>\n
The exhibition, presented in partnership with Lumi\u00e9re Gallery and curated by its director Tony Casadonte, opened March 22. Admission is $6\u2013$12.<\/p>\n
Two men, one borough<\/p>\n
Casadonte did not pair Broffman and Aarons by accident. He found their shared origin stories \u2014 descended from immigrant parents who fled antisemitism and landed in the Bronx in the early 1900s \u2014 compelling and complementary.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt instilled in them a deep appreciation for the ideals of the United States and provided each man with a sense of gratitude and service in the course of their lives,\u201d Casadonte said.<\/p>\n
For Broffman, that service took the form of witness. He served as the primary photographer for the Washington National Cathedral from 1966 until his death, documenting King\u2019s March 1968 sermon there, days before King was killed in Memphis. Broffman also captured the March 25, 1965, Selma-to-Montgomery march, 1960s Pentagon protests against the Vietnam War, and the spring 1968 Poor People\u2019s Campaign. In 1969, he traveled to Appalachia to document poverty in Breathitt County, Kentucky.<\/p>\n
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Broffman\u2019s image from the March 25, 1965, Selma-to-Montgomery march, part of the Bronx Boys photography exhibition now on view at The Breman. From left: Juanita Abernathy, Ralph Bunche, Martin Luther King Jr., Coretta Scott King, Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, and Hosea Williams. (Morton Broffman\/Courtesy Neal Broffman)<\/p>\n
Aarons channeled the same instinct through a different profession. He built a career as a physicist and engineer, earning a master\u2019s degree from Boston University and eventually leading its Center for Space Physics. Photography remained a passion throughout. Influenced by Henri Cartier-Bresson and New York street photographers, Aarons documented Boston\u2019s West and North Ends and shot in France, India, and Japan \u2014 always, Casadonte noted, with his camera ready, \u201clooking for moments that reminded him of the humanity that he knew from the streets of his Bronx childhood.\u201d<\/p>\n
What you\u2019ll see<\/p>\n
Broffman\u2019s images place viewers at the center of history. His photographs of marches and demonstrations convey the urgency, courage, and collective determination of those fighting for justice during the Civil Rights Movement.<\/p>\n
Read More: Aarons worked from a quieter vantage point. Rather than documenting major events, he observed everyday moments in urban neighborhoods, often shooting unobtrusively from waist level. His photographs captured the dignity and complexity of ordinary life with a scientist\u2019s precision and a street photographer\u2019s instinct.<\/p>\n Honoring an archive<\/p>\n For Atlanta audiences, the Broffman half of the exhibition carries a particular local thread.<\/p>\n When Broffman died in 1992 at 64 from ALS, his son Neal, a producer and former Atlanta CNN staffer, became keeper of his father\u2019s archive. For years, the work reached few eyes. That changed when Julian Cox, then the High Museum of Art\u2019s photography curator, connected with Neal while organizing \u201cRoad to Freedom: Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement, 1956\u20131968,\u201d which opened at the High on June 7, 2008. Cox selected Broffman images for the show, and the High ultimately acquired more than 30 vintage Broffman photographs<\/a> for its permanent collection.<\/p>\n \u201cRoad to Freedom felt like a moment of excitement and potential momentum,\u201d Neal Broffman said. \u201cI felt that, at last, people can see these beautiful photographs that our family had been surrounded by for years.\u201d<\/p>\n Seeing his father\u2019s image of King marching up Dexter Avenue toward the Alabama Capitol on the front of the High hit differently. \u201cI drove past the High as much as I could just to look up and see it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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