Raymond Jacobs acquired his father’s folding Kodak camera when he was fourteen. His first DeWitt Clinton High School newspaper assignment was to cover the 1939 World’s Fair in New York City. After graduation, when he was old enough, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and served overseas in the Signal Corps during World War II. While he photographed during those years, the snapshots were strictly for family consumption.In the early 1950s, Raymond became a student of Lisette Model and then Sid Grossman. Lisette’s guidance and encouragement enabled him to consider a career as a professional photographer. As reinforcement, Edward Steichen, Curator of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art, soon purchased a group of his photographs for the Museum’s Permanent Collection, including the one which appeared in the important FAMILY OF MAN exhibition in 1955, and for a later exhibition titled SEVENTY PHOTOGRAPHERS LOOK AT NEW YORK in 1957.
After marriage in 1955, to support himself, his wife Eleanor, and their two daughters, he became a free-lance photographer and did work for major clients such as IBM, Pan Am, EAL, Johnson & Johnson, GE, Parke Davis, Campbell’s Soup, Metropolitan Life, Tareyton Cigarettes, etc. As a prominent and successful advertising photographer, he received over fifty Art Directors’ Awards. He continued to do photo-essay assignments for such prestigious publications as FORTUNE MAGAZINE, ESQUIRE, HARPER’s BAZAAR, VENTURE, LADIES HOME JOURNAL, GLAMOUR, SHOW, EROS, McCALLS, REDBOOK, etc. His work also appeared in many issues of PHOTOGRAPHY ANNUAL, and POPULAR PHOTOGRAPHY during those years.
Simultaneously, Raymond pursued his non-commercial creative photography which he adored and which resulted in his first one-man major exhibition at the seminal Limelight Gallery in 196l. Photography as an art form was in its infancy at that time. Nevertheless, the artistic significance of this work was recognized not only by Helen Gee, but by The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis where he was given a 10-year Retrospective Show in 1963. This show was so successful, the museum extended it for several additional weeks to satisfy its growing audience.
After a dozen or so years in these dual roles, he turned his creative talents towards two low-budget feature films which he produced and directed. Each became commercially successful. One, AROUSED, was purchased by the Museum of Modern Art for its Permanent Film Archives, and was described as an outstanding film of its genre. The second, THE MINX, was “Boffo” at the Box Office, according to VARIETY.
A glitch in Raymond’s photography career occurred in 1970 when he and his wife impetuously started The EARTH Shoe Company in the United States after finding this unique product while on vacation in Copenhagen, Denmark. In the next seven years, it was embraced by the “flower children,” and became an internationally famous shoe which redefined the word “comfort.” They gave up their interest in the company in 1977.
Raymond returned to his work as a professional photographer, taught at the Forman School in Litchfield, CT, and had a series of one-man shows at the Washington Irving Gallery (NYC), The National Arts Club (NYC), The Washington Art Association (Washington, CT), and The Oliver Wolcott Library (Litchfield, CT). His great talent and insatiable love of photography is reflected in his compassionate and humanist subject matter.
He was working on a major retrospective exhibition when he fell ill in 1992 and died in 1993.
EXHIBITIONS
Museum of Modern Art - New York City - FAMILY OF MAN – 1955
Museum of Modern Art - New York City – SEVENTY PHOTOGRAPHERS LOOK AT
NEW YORK – November 26, 1957 through March, 1958
Limelight Gallery – New York City – 196l
Walker Art Center – Minneapolis, MN – 1963
Washington Irving Gallery – New York City – 1978
Oliver Wolcott Library – Litchfield, CT – 1990
National Arts Club – New York City – 1990
Washington Art Association – Washington, CT 1990
NewArts Gallery – THE FOCUSED EYE – Bantam, CT 2000
The Tremaine Gallery at the Hotchkiss School –
RAYMOND JACOBS REDISCOVERED – Lakeville, CT –
April 1-30 – 2006
West Street Grill, Litchfield, CT – August 2006-May 2008
West Street Grill, Litchfield, CT – May – December 2008
A retrospective, RAYMOND JACOBS REDISCOVERED, was curated by his wife, Eleanor Jacobs and Robert Haiko, the Director of The Tremaine Gallery at The Hotchkiss School, Lakeville, CT – April, 2006.
His black and white photographs taken in the 1950s and 1960s of Jazz, New York, Coney Island, Portraits and Migrant Workers in North Carolina have been exhibited at The West Street Grill, Litchfield, CT – August through November 2006. His color circus and other subjects have been exhibited at The West Street Grill, Litchfield, CT May 2007-May 2008. His black and white photographs of the Gaspe Peninsular, Quebec, Canada, 1954 were exhibited at the West Street Grill from May to December 2008.
APERTURE Gallery – Ten of his black and white photos are included
in LISETTE MODEL and Her Successors – September – November l, 2007..
The show traveled to Presentation House, North Vancouver, BC Canada – March 14 – April 27, 2008; to Museo di Roma in Trastevere, Rome, Italy – September 11 to
November 2, 2008; to Galleria Carla Sozzani, Milan, Italy – December 13, 2008-
January 25, 2009 and will open in Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, South
Hadley, Massachusetts – September 1 – December 11, 2009
PUBLISHED WORK
PICTURE POST – Nov.6, 1954 –JAZZ – America discovers Jazz—Louis Armstrong,
etc., pp. 53-55
PHOTOGRAPHY ANNUAL 1954 – p. 219
HARPER’S BAZAAR – July 1954 – THE FIGHT AGAINST SILENCE – JAZZ
PHOTOGRAPHY - 1955 – pp. 103, 116-117, 182, 193
ESQUIRE - Mar. 1955 – LOUIS ARMSTRONG – SATCHMO - pp. 80-82
FAMILY OF MAN – 1955 –MUSEUM OF MODERN ART – p. 165
PARADE – July 17, 1955 – LIFE WITH 13 SONS –pp. 8-11
LEICA PHOTOGRAPHY – Winter 1955 - BE YOUR OWN WEATHERMAN
Written and photographed by Raymond Jacobs – pp. 10-15
CANDID PHOTOGRAPHY 1956 – MIGRATORY WORKERS – Written and
Photographed by Raymond Jacobs – pp. 10-15
Ballet of Chickens – pp. 94-95
Young Boy - p. 110; Shopper – p. 111
SEE - Jan. 1956 – PONY GIRL – pp. 17-21
SEE - May 1956 – RUNAWAY HUSBANDS, A National epidemic – pp. 10-13
ART PHOTOGRAPHY – May 1956 – BALLET ON EIGHTH AVENUE – Written and photographed by Raymond Jacobs – pp. 30-33, 49
ART DIRECTION – Mar. 1958 – Cover, and FOR THE POSE THAT’s CONVINCING
Written and photographed by Raymond Jacobs – pp. 42-43
POPULAR PHOTOGRAPHY – Sept. 1962 – COVER – CIRCUS FLAG
SHOW – Mar. 1962 – CIRCUS STORY – pp. 57-6l
EROS – Winter 1962, Vol. One, Number Four, 1963 – JEWEL BOX REVIEW-DRAG
SHOW – A photographic essay by Raymond Jacobs
U.S. CAMERA – Nov. 1962 – pp. 42-43
PHOTOGRAPHY ANNUAL –1963 – pp. 74-80
McCALL’S – Jan. 1964 – EIGH DAYS MAKE A MIRACLE – p. 34
CAMERA 35 –June/July 1964 – BOY WITH ELEPHANT – p. 36
APPLIED PHOTOGRAPHY – Number 22, 1964 – TWO BY TWO – pp. 18-23
APPLIED PHOTOGRAPHY – (no date) – JUDGMENT BY THE PEOPLE – pp.6-7
(Lou Dorfsman, Art Director, CBS Radio)
VENTURE – Mar. 1966 – COSTA SMERALDA and the MAN WHO HAD IT MADE –
pp. 50-58; written by Audrey Menen – Photographed by Raymond Jacobs
COLLECTIONS
Museum of Modern Art – New York City
Walker Art Center – Minneapolis, MN
P.T.Barnum Museum – Bridgeport, CT
Private Collections
DETOURS
1968-1970 – Produced and directed two films: AROUSED (purchased by MOMA as an outstanding movie of its genre – low-budget black and white murder mystery), and THE MINX, low-budget, color starring Jan Sterling.
1970-1977 – Co-founded with wife, Eleanor, The EARTH Shoe Company which became the icon shoe of the anti-war, back to nature “Flower Children” movement. Requested by the Metropolitan Museum of Art Fashion Department for their Permanent Collection as the genre shoe of its generation.
1978-1993 – Resumed photography career concentrating on personal projects in preparation for gallery and retrospective museum shows.
March 17, 1993 – St Patrick’s Day, died in Connecticut.
