Morton Broffman and Jules Aarons never met. But both Bronx-born sons of Jewish immigrants moved through the 20th century with cameras in hand and a shared eye for humanity. “Bronx Boys: Storytelling with a Lens,” now on view at The Breman, brings their photography work together for the first time in Atlanta.
The exhibition, presented in partnership with Lumiére Gallery and curated by its director Tony Casadonte, opened March 22. Admission is $6–$12.
Two men, one borough
Casadonte did not pair Broffman and Aarons by accident. He found their shared origin stories — descended from immigrant parents who fled antisemitism and landed in the Bronx in the early 1900s — compelling and complementary.
“It instilled in them a deep appreciation for the ideals of the United States and provided each man with a sense of gratitude and service in the course of their lives,” Casadonte said.
For Broffman, that service took the form of witness. He served as the primary photographer for the Washington National Cathedral from 1966 until his death, documenting King’s March 1968 sermon there, days before King was killed in Memphis. Broffman also captured the March 25, 1965, Selma-to-Montgomery march, 1960s Pentagon protests against the Vietnam War, and the spring 1968 Poor People’s Campaign. In 1969, he traveled to Appalachia to document poverty in Breathitt County, Kentucky.
Aarons channeled the same instinct through a different profession. He built a career as a physicist and engineer, earning a master’s degree from Boston University and eventually leading its Center for Space Physics. Photography remained a passion throughout. Influenced by Henri Cartier-Bresson and New York street photographers, Aarons documented Boston’s West and North Ends and shot in France, India, and Japan — always, Casadonte noted, with his camera ready, “looking for moments that reminded him of the humanity that he knew from the streets of his Bronx childhood.”
What you’ll see
Broffman’s images place viewers at the center of history. His photographs of marches and demonstrations convey the urgency, courage, and collective determination of those fighting for justice during the Civil Rights Movement.
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Aarons worked from a quieter vantage point. Rather than documenting major events, he observed everyday moments in urban neighborhoods, often shooting unobtrusively from waist level. His photographs captured the dignity and complexity of ordinary life with a scientist’s precision and a street photographer’s instinct.
Honoring an archive
For Atlanta audiences, the Broffman half of the exhibition carries a particular local thread.
When Broffman died in 1992 at 64 from ALS, his son Neal, a producer and former Atlanta CNN staffer, became keeper of his father’s archive. For years, the work reached few eyes. That changed when Julian Cox, then the High Museum of Art’s photography curator, connected with Neal while organizing “Road to Freedom: Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement, 1956–1968,” which opened at the High on June 7, 2008. Cox selected Broffman images for the show, and the High ultimately acquired more than 30 vintage Broffman photographs for its permanent collection.
“Road to Freedom felt like a moment of excitement and potential momentum,” Neal Broffman said. “I felt that, at last, people can see these beautiful photographs that our family had been surrounded by for years.”
Seeing his father’s image of King marching up Dexter Avenue toward the Alabama Capitol on the front of the High hit differently. “I drove past the High as much as I could just to look up and see it,” he said.
That visibility pushed Neal to deepen his commitment to the archive. He has since scanned negatives, built a digital archive, and placed about 400 of his father’s images on Getty Images. The Bronx Museum holds roughly 65 Broffman images in its permanent collection.
“I feel a great responsibility to my father’s work,” Neal Broffman said. “To preserve it and to get it out into the world so it can be seen.”
“Bronx Boys: Storytelling with a Lens” opens our aperture a little wider.
