Murray Korman: The One Big Name

Murray Korman’s meteoric rise to fame and fortune was equaled only by his rapid fall into relative obscurity. A budding artist in the early years of the 20th century, by the 1930s Korman turned to the camera as his primary tool for artistic expression. Through talent and determination, he eventually owned two of the most prosperous studios in New York City and was labeled by The New Yorker Magazine as The One Big Name. But poor business management combined with competition and the shifting sands of the New York fashion scene sent Korman’s career into a tailspin. After a brief attempt to jump-start his photography business in California, he returned to New York where he died in 1961, poor, alone, and his massive portfolio scattered and virtually forgotten.