Born in 1930 in Highland Park, Illinois, Rosalind Fox Solomon is an artist based in New York City who works primarily with photography. Solomon is celebrated for her emotionally evocative portraits depicting human suffering, ritual, and struggle for survival.
During the 1970s, Solomon produced photographs of dolls and mannequins, documented the ill over the course of a yearlong project at Chattanooga Hospital, Tennessee; and also produced portraits of well-known artists and politicians, including William Eggleston and President Jimmy Carter. John Szarkowski included Solomon’s work in the 1978 exhibition, “Mirrors and Windows” at the Museum of Modern Art, New York City; and exhibited examples from her dolls and mannequins series in the show, “Photography for Collectors.” Szarkowski also selected 50 of Solomon’s prints for MoMA’s permanent collection. In 1986, Solomon’s work was presented in the solo exhibition, “Rosalind Solomon, Ritual,” and has since appeared in numerous MoMA group shows, including the 2010-2011 exhibition, “Pictures by Women: A History of Modern Photography.”
In 1987, Solomon began making portraits of individuals with AIDS in the hope of helping to dissolve the stigma that surrounded them as they were sick and dying. Sixty-five of these portraits were featured in the 1988 exhibition, “Portraits in the Time of AIDS,” at New York University’s Grey Gallery. A selection of these portraits was also shown in 2013 at Bruce Silverstein Gallery, New York City; and again in 2015 in the Salon d’Honneur of the Grand Palais, at Paris Photo.
Solomon’s work is included in the collections of over 50 museums around the world, including the Bibilithèque nationale de France, Paris; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Brooklyn Museum, New York City; the Corcoran Gallery of Art and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; George Eastman House, Rochester, New York; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; among many others.