(Manhattan reflections)

Henry Michael Sarason

Henry Michael Sarason was born in Germany in 1896 and immigrated to the U.S. in 1925 . He became a naturalized citizen in February of 1926. He became fascinated by photography and began working in the medium. In the late 1940s he created a series of experimental Manhattan portraits, light reflected off of buildings and using multiple exposures of which this is an excellent example.

Heinrich Michael Sarason was born in Hamburg, Germany on March 28, 1896 to Abraham and Fanny Sarason. He emigrated to the United States in 1925 at age 29, listing his occupation as an artist. After getting his citizenship in 1926 he married Helen Theodore in 1929, changed his name to Henry and studied medicine, graduating with a medical degree, specialinzing in dermatology. He was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1942.

Sarason practiced as a doctor in Manhattan in New York City while, at the same time, taking an active role as a photographer. Dr. Henry Sarason was a member of the Manhattan Camera Club and exhibited his photographs in December of 1953 at the New School for Social Research in New York, the first one-man show by an outside exhibitor. A New York Times review from December 13, 1953 notes: "A one-man show by Dr. Henry Sarason, a pictorialist who has 'Crashed' the Museum of Modern Art photography collection, opened last week at the New School for Social Research, 66 West Twelfth Street where it will hang through December 18th..." His work was also included in the 1958-59 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art titled "Photographs from the Museum Collection".

Between April 4 and 15, 1960 he again exhibited at the New School, a selection of 40 images at the Johnson Building. The press release read: "Mr Sarason, who's (sic) experience as a photographer extends back 20 years, has a group of prints in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. He has recently developed a double negative technique which U.S. Camera describes as the discovery of a marvelous new potential leading to completely original and exciting images."

Dr. Henry Michael Sarason died on July 1 of 1979 in New York, NY.