Hour by Hour

The Joseph Saxton Gallery of Photography opens Hour by Hour, the photographic works of Louis Clyde Stoumen, better known as Lou Stoumen. The series focuses on the world-famous Times Square. The subject matter was documented extensively by Stoumen, however, this particular collection concentrates on the 1940's.

Lou Stoumen was born in Springtown, Pennsylvania in 1917 and went on to study at Lehigh University, graduating with a Bachelor's degree in Fine Arts. Fresh from the college gates, Stoumen was ambitious from the start. Soon after leaving school, he published his first book, Speech for the Young: First Poems and Camera Work, and moved to New York. There, he worked as both a photographer and journalist. He studied under Sid Grossman, at the Photo League, later becoming an editor for their publication, Photo Notes.

With reporting in his blood, he began working for the National Youth Administration in Puerto Rico in 1941, then as a war correspondent and photographer (1942) for the U.S. Army publication, Yank. Moving to Los Angeles, he continued his career as a photojournalist.

While in California he branched out even further, taking graduate classes in film, television, and photography, at the University of Southern California. Upon graduation, he entered the film industry as a cinematographer. Two of his films became Oscar winners, namely The True Story of the Civil War (1957), narrated by Raymond Massey, and Black Fox: The True Story of Adolf Hitler (1963). After receiving these awards from the Academy, UCLA invited Stoumen to become a faculty member in the Department of Cinematography and Television, where he ended his career in 1988, after 22 years as Professor Emeritus.

Louis Clyde Stoumen died in 1991, of cancer.