Milton Rogovin American, 1909- "The great photographer immersed himself in the poetry of simplicity and came to the surface with the net full of clear fish and flowers of profundity," Chilean poet Pablo Neruda wrote of Milton Rogovin. A social documentary photographer in the tradition of Lewis Hine, Rogovin's subjects have consistently been the world's urban and rural poor. His monograph The Forgotten Ones (1985) included series on storefront churches; portraits from Appalachia, Chile, and Spain; the Lower West Side of Buffalo; the Yemeni series at Lackawanna, New York; and mining villages in Scotland. Born in New York City, Rogovin acquired his first camera in 1942, teaching himself photography during the evenings, weekends, and vacations from his job as an optometrist in Buffalo (a vocation he practiced until 1977). He holds a B.A. in optics and optometry from Columbia University (1931) and an M.A. in American studies from the State University of New York at Buffalo (1971). For his dedication to humanitarian documentary photography, Rogovin received the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund Award in 1983. He lives in Buffalo. A.W.