PIX, Inc was an early New York City photo bureau which followed European, particularly German, precedents. From 1935 to 1969 it supplied news and feature photos to magazines, especially ''

Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for Cell growth, growth, reaction to Stimu ...

'' and, later, ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twice ...

.''

Formation

The agency was founded in New York City at 250

Park Avenue Park Avenue is a wide New York City boulevard which carries north and southbound traffic in the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. For most of the road's length in Manhattan, it runs parallel to Madison Avenue to the west and Lexington Aven ...

in November 1935 by Leon Daniel and Celia Kutschuk. It pre-dates the more famous Magnum (begun in 1947). Born in the Ukraine, Kutschuk had studied

photojournalism Photojournalism is journalism that uses images to tell a news story. It usually only refers to still images, but can also refer to video used in broadcast journalism. Photojournalism is distinguished from other close branches of photography (suc ...

at Rhine University, and both had worked as picture editors at the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. n ...

office in

Berlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...

, which was headed by American

Louis Lochner Ludwig "Louis" Paul Lochner (February 22, 1887 – January 8, 1975) was an American political activist, journalist, and author. During World War I, Lochner was a leading figure in the American and the international anti-war movement. Later, he serv ...

from 1928 until 1941, when Germany and the United States declared war and Lochner was held and then deported as an enemy alien. Jewish employees were sacked, and many fled Europe.

European roots

PIX acted as an intermediary between

émigré An ''émigré'' () is a person who has emigrated, often with a connotation of political or social self- exile. The word is the past participle of the French ''émigrer'', "to emigrate". French Huguenots Many French Huguenots fled France follow ...

photographers and the American magazine and newspaper market, profiting from the development of photojournalism in the USA in the 1930s onwards. As many of the photographers for PIX were

naturalized Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the i ...

American citizens, they were not allowed in the war theaters during WWII, so they stayed home and covered the home front, though during the

Korean War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Korean War , partof = the Cold War and the Korean conflict , image = Korean War Montage 2.png , image_size = 300px , caption = Clockwise from top: ...

and Cold War,

Ed Feingersh Ed Feingersh (1925–1961) studied photography under Alexey Brodovitch at the New School of Social Research. He later worked as a photojournalist for the Pix Publishing agency. His talent for available light photography under seemingly imposs ...

produced striking reportage.

The photographers

The first-signed photographers of the agency were

Alfred Eisenstaedt Alfred Eisenstaedt (December 6, 1898 – August 23, 1995) was a German-born American photographer and photojournalist. He began his career in Germany prior to World War II but achieved prominence as a staff photographer for ''Life'' magazine af ...

and Georg Karger. Eisenstaedt (1898–1995) was the best-known member of PIX and until the 1950s credited his work to PIX, Inc. He left PIX about 1957 over a royalty disagreement.

Robert Capa Robert Capa (born Endre Ernő Friedmann; October 22, 1913 – May 25, 1954) was a Hungarian-American war photography, war photographer and Photojournalism, photojournalist as well as the companion and professional partner of photographer Gerda T ...

and

Cornell Capa Cornell Capa (born Kornél Friedmann; April 10, 1918 – May 23, 2008) was a Hungarian American photographer, member of Magnum Photos, photo curator, and the younger brother of photo-journalist and war photographer Robert Capa. Graduating from Imr ...

were also briefly associated with PIX (Cornell worked as a printer in the laboratory). German George Karger (1909–1973) left banking for a career in stage photography. Jerry Cooke (b. Yuri Kutschuk, 1922–2005) was the nephew of Celia Kutschuk and initially worked in the agency darkroom before becoming a photographer and producing work for ''Life,'' '' Fortune,'' ''

Collier's ''Collier's'' was an American general interest magazine founded in 1888 by Peter F. Collier, Peter Fenelon Collier. It was launched as ''Collier's Once a Week'', then renamed in 1895 as ''Collier's Weekly: An Illustrated Journal'', shortened i ...

'', ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, t ...

'', ''Sports Illustrated'' and European publications.

Lawrence Fried Lawrence Fried (June 28, 1926 – 1983) was an American photo-journalist. He was born to first-generation Jewish Hungarian and Russian parents in New York, N. Y. Fried's work appeared in ''Newsweek'', ''The Saturday Evening Post'', ''The New York T ...

(1926-1983), a World War II veteran, worked steadily as a photo-journalist for ''

The Saturday Evening Post ''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine, currently published six times a year. It was issued weekly under this title from 1897 until 1963, then every two weeks until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely ...

'', ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', ''

Vogue Vogue may refer to: Business * ''Vogue'' (magazine), a US fashion magazine ** British ''Vogue'', a British fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Arabia'', an Arab fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Australia'', an Australian fashion magazine ** ''Vogue China'', ...

'', ''

'', and ''

Parade Magazine ''Parade'' was an American nationwide Sunday newspaper magazine, distributed in more than 700 newspapers in the United States until 2022. The most widely read magazine in the U.S., ''Parade'' had a circulation of 32 million and a readership of 5 ...

'' with over 70 covers for ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely ...

''. He was the recipient of the Photographer of the Year award by the

Overseas Press Club The Overseas Press Club of America (OPC) was founded in 1939 in New York City by a group of foreign correspondents. The wire service reporter Carol Weld was a founding member, as was the war correspondent Peggy Hull. The club seeks to maintain a ...

, the Outstanding Service to ASMP award and the Benjamin Franklin Award. Eileen Darby (Lester) (1916 – April 21, 2004) worked in the PIX darkroom from 1937, in the same way as Cornell Capa, but from 1939 started photographing for the agency, which sent her on theatrical assignments, since players and producers were used to female photographers, and she subsequently founded her own agency, Graphic House, in 1941. Other PIX photographers included Hans Knopf (1907–1967),

Bob Schwalberg Bob Schwalberg (October 12, 1927 – October 8, 1996) was an American photojournalist and writer on photographic technique and equipment. Career Schwalberg was a photojournalist who worked for PIX Publishing, an early New York City photo agency whi ...

Bob Henriques Bob Henriques (1930–2011) was an American photojournalist who was active in the 1950s and early 1960s. He was an Associate of Magnum Photos, and a free-lance photographer for Life (magazine), Life Magazine. He is best known for his photos of mo ...

Garry Winogrand Garry Winogrand (January 14, 1928 – March 19, 1984) was an American street photographer, known for his portrayal of U.S. life and its social issues, in the mid-20th century. Photography curator, historian, and critic John Szarkowski called Wi ...

, and George Zimbel.

Cessation

PIX was dissolved in 1969 with the rise of television which displaced the big picture magazines and most of its members moved their business to other picture agencies.

Legacy

An archive of PIX photos was amassed by Emil Klinsky (1899–?), the bulk of which is now at the

Art Gallery of Ontario The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO; french: Musée des beaux-arts de l'Ontario) is an art museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The museum is located in the Grange Park neighbourhood of downtown Toronto, on Dundas Street West between McCaul and Be ...

(AGO). The Spaarnestad collection in the National Archives of The Netherlands in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a list of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's ad ...

contains photos distributed by PIX to Dutch publishing companies. The Spaarnestad collection does not contain a separate PIX archive. The photos in these archives coming from publishing companies are filed away according to subject not by the names of the photo bureaus. As far as the information goes of Spaarnestad Photo the copyrights of PIX material remained with the photographers.

References

{{reflist Photojournalism Photo archives in Canada Stock photography Photo agencies