Harry Lapow (1909-1982) was an award-winning New York City package designer when he was given a camera for his 43rd birthday. From then until his death three decades later, he saw the world through a viewfinder, finding beauty in what could have been deemed grotesque, seeing form where others noticed only function.
Born in Newark, NJ, Lapow began taking art classes in high school. After graduation he moved to New York and worked for Martin Ullman, a pioneer in the field of package design. For a decade Lapow worked with Ullman, and then, in 1941, formed a partnership with Ben Koodin, a fellow designer, and they opened Koodin-Lapow. The firm handled major packaging projects for R. H. Macys, Wamsutta Mills, Seagrams, and Rokeach, among others.
While Lapow continued in package design until he retired at age 65, his passion became photography. He took courses with Lisette Model at the New School for Social Research, and studied photography with Sid Grossman. He also studied painting with Evsa Model. He traveled widely, always bringing his cameras. Lapow shot in small fishing villages in Nova Scotia, farming and fishing communities in the Gaspé Peninsula of Québec, a Crow Indian reservation in Montana, the Magdelan Islands, Prince Edward Island, and later, in Morocco, Sardinia, and Italy.
Lapow's photographs were first exhibited in 1959 when Helen Gee gave him a solo show at her Limelight Gallery in Greenwich Village; he also showed in group exhibitions at A Photographer's Gallery, New York; The International Photographic Exhibition, Washington, DC; Photokina, Cologne, Germany; New York Vu Par Cultural Center, Paris, France; and Man and His World, Expo ’67, Montreal, Canada. In 1978 Dover Publications published a book of his Coney Island work, Coney Island Beach People.
When Lapow died in September of 1982 he was still working. He had become an advocate for the elderly, a “gray panther” — and made photographs showing positive aspects of aging, seeking out ordinary older people who had not retired from life. Ever vibrant, enthusiastic, opinionated, passionate, and daring, it would have never occurred to Harry Lapow to retire.
Harry Lapow
Studios
Putnam
Harry Lapow worked in the Putnam studio.
The Graphics Studio (as it was originally named) was converted to its present use in 1972–1974 through a grant from the Putnam Foundation, and originally served the property as both a power house and pump house. Well water was pumped from a large cistern to Hillcrest, the Foreman’s Cottage, and the lower buildings closer to…