Allan Tannenbaum (b. New Jersey, USA, 1945) has been making photographs since the 1960s. He received a B.A. in Art from Rutgers University in 1967 and attended San Francisco State College for graduate school. After a stint as a seaman in the U.S. Merchant Marine, he taught photography and filmmaking at the Livingston College branch of Rutgers University from 1970 until 1972.
Tannenbaum became the Photo Editor and Chief Photographer for the SoHo Weekly News in New York when it was founded in 1973. Tannenbaum relentlessly covered the art world, music scene, politics, show business and nightlife in New York City, until 1982 when the SoHo Weekly News folded.
The high point of this period was photographing John Lennon and Yoko Ono in 1980– the low point was John Lennon’s murder 10 days later. Tannenbaum’s photographic archive is considered one of the most seminal documents of 1970s New York City culture.
While working on staff for the SoHo News, Tannenbaum freelanced for magazines such as Newsweek and New York Magazine and syndicated his SoHo News photos internationally to newspapers, magazines, and photo agencies. Upon the demise of the SoHo News, Tannenbaum joined the renowned agency Sygma Photo News, for whom he covered national and international stories of historical importance. During the 1980s and 90s, Tannenbaum covered events including the unrest in South Africa, the Philippine Revolution, the Karenni rebellion in Burma, the Palestinian Intifada, violent demonstrations in Korea, the siege of Kabul, German reunification, the situation in Northern Ireland, Operation Desert Storm in Kuwait and Iraq, the Gulf Crisis, the Rwandan refugee crisis, the Oklahoma City bombing and the Columbine school massacre. He won a first prize in Spot News
Stories at the World Press Photo competition in 1989 for his coverage of the Intifada. Tannenbaum has also made photographs in Thailand, Indonesia, Palau, Jordan, Bahrain, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Brazil, Israel, Iceland, Mexico and many other countries.
On the morning of September 11, 2001, Tannenbaum became involved in the biggest and most dangerous story of his career, occurring just six blocks south of his home. Tannenbaum photographed the explosion of the second plane and Ground Zero between tower collapses. He was covered in dust and debris when the first tower went down, but stayed at the site to continue documenting what was happening around him. His photographs of this event have been published and exhibited all over the world. In 2013, Tannenbaum received a proclamation from the Council of the City of New York, recognizing his service to all New Yorkers for his documentation of the 9/11 tragedy.
Tannenbaum’s work has appeared in many photography books and appears regularly in Newsweek, Time, Life, Rolling Stone, Paris Match, and Stern. His photographs have graced the covers of TIME three times and Newsweek five times.
In 2003, the German publisher Feierabend Verlag published New York In The 70s, first book of Tannenbaum’s photographs. The book received critical acclaim and the first printing quickly sold out. Overlook Press published a second edition in April 2009. A second book of Tannenbaum’s photographs of New York City, taken in the 1980s through 2004, titled New York, was published in 2005. A third book, John & Yoko: A New York Love Story, of Tannenbaum’s intimate photographs of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, was published in October 2007 by Insight Editions. American Photo named it one of the ten best photography books of 2007 and it was a Gold Medal winner at the 2008 Independent Book Publisher Awards.
In 2016, Insight Editions published a fourth book of Tannenbaum’s photographs, Grit & Glamour- Street Style, High Fashion, and the Legendary Music of the 1970s. Tannenbaum continues to make photographs and exhibit the work from his vast archive at galleries and museums around the world.
The Archive of Allan Tannenbaum is represented by The J. Blatt Agency LLC, New York.
