Penny Wolin (born June 5, 1953), also known as Penny Diane Wolin and Penny Wolin-Semple, is an American portrait photographer and a visual anthropologist. She has exhibited solo at the Smithsonian Institution and is the recipient of two grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and one grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Her work is held in the permanent collections of such institutions as Harvard University, the Layton Art Collection at the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the New York Public Library and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Known for her documentary and conceptual photographs, she has completed commissions for major corporations, national magazines and private collectors, including the Walt Disney Company, LIFE Magazine and the Brant Foundation. For over 30 years, she has used photographic portraiture with oral interviews to research Jewish civilization in America.
Youth and Education Wolin is the youngest of five children born into a Conservadox Jewish family in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Her father, Morris Aaron Wolin (ne Wolinsky) immigrated there as a child, directly from the Russian town of Grodno, later to become a businessman. Her mother, Helen Sobol Wolin, came from Denver, Colorado, and was an artist. At age 10, Penny began using a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye. At age 16, her brother Michael Wolin gave her a high quality rangefinder camera and the necessary darkroom equipment to begin a career.
Wolin attended the University of Wyoming and then was graduated from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, majoring in photography and film. She then attended a masters' program in the department of cultural anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles, under the mentorship of Cultural Anthropologist Johannes Wilbert. Then, she was awarded a directing fellowship to the American Film Institute, Center for Advanced Film and Television Studies.
Documentary Projects
Guest Register
In 1975 at 21 years of age, while studying at ArtCenter College of Design, Penny Wolin moved into a Single Room Occupancy hotel, the St. Francis in Hollywood, California, and photographed and interviewed selected residents of the rooms. She created 34 black and white photographs with excerpted texts for Guest Register. The hotel, on the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Western Avenue, sheltered a range of people from all ages and walks of life, staying from one night to thirty years. This work brought Wolin to the attention of graphic designers such as Lloyd Ziff, Art Director at New West Magazine; Bob Cato at A&M Records; and Marvin Israel; a graphic designer working in New York. After seeing Wolin's photography, Ziff commissioned Wolin to photograph Ansel Adams and George Burns; Cato commissioned Wolin to photograph the rock group The Band; Israel began designing a book maquette for publication by the Aperture Foundation and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art invited her to participate in a group exhibition.
Descendants of Light: American Photographers of Jewish Ancestry
In 2005, Wolin began researching Descendants of Light: American Photographers of Jewish Ancestry. Since the 1850s, these photographers have contributed to journalistic, fashion, portrait, advertising and fine art photography. By photographing and interviewing each photographer, (or interviewing the living descendants of those who have died) re-photographing heirloom images of their ancestors and showcasing an iconic image that is of their own creation, Wolin is able to visually and verbally document a multi-generational story of the intersection between American Jewish culture, modern America and the history and practice of photography. Jewish-American photographers interviewed and photographed by Wolin include Lillian Bassman, Jo Ann Callis, Lauren Greenfield, Elinor Carucci, Lois Greenfield, Bruce Davidson, Annie Leibovitz, Herman Leonard, Helen Levitt, Jay Maisel, Joel Meyerowitz, Arnold Newman, Robert Frank and Joel-Peter Witkin. Posthumous interviews include the families of Philippe Halsman, Herb Ritts, Nickolas Muray, Arthur Rothstein, Roman Vishniac and Garry Winogrand.
The Jews of Wyoming: Fringe of the Diaspora
In 1982 Wolin met the late Shirley Burden, the major donor to the photography department of The Museum of Modern Art. With his encouragement and financial assistance as well as that of two National Endowment for the Humanities grants, as administered through the Wyoming Council for the Humanities, Wolin completed a visual and verbal study of 140 years and five generations of Jewish culture in Wyoming. The Jews of Wyoming: Fringe of The Diaspora was sponsored by what is now known as the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, California, and exhibited solo at the Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American History, National Museum of American Jewish History, Judah L. Magnes Museum and Ucross Foundation. A book of the same title is published by Crazy Woman Creek Press.
Jackalopes, Cowboys and Coalmines: A Photographic Survey of Wyoming In 1978, Wolin was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts major survey grant to complete Jackalopes, Cowboys and Coalmines: A Photographic Survey of Wyoming. Because of Wyoming's mineral and oil-rich natural resources, the state's history had been one of a boom or bust economy and culture. A national energy crisis made for a huge energy boom in Wolin's native state. This energy boom brought a final "Americanization" to the rural towns that sparsely dotted the least populated state in the union. Shopping malls and fast food outlets arrived; local downtown businesses closed, and the existing ranch economy was in turmoil. A worker's wage to tend cattle was no match for the higher wages being paid to work in an open-pit coal mine or a drilling rig. Traveling during each season throughout Wyoming, Wolin photographed and interviewed the native and newly arriving residents, ranging from cowboys to oilfield roughnecks to elected officials. The resulting work became a traveling exhibition that toured Wyoming as sponsored by then Governor Ed Herschler. The photographs and text are now held in the permanent collection of the Wyoming State Museum and the Smithsonian Institution, American Art Museum.
Selected exhibitions Year Location Title Solo/Group2025Leica Gallery, New York, New YorkGUEST REGISTERSolo2018Museum of Sonoma County, Santa Rosa, CaliforniaAftermath: The Tubbs FireGroup2017Calabi Gallery: Santa Rosa, CaliforniaAftermath: The Tubbs Fire Group2012Calabi Gallery: Santa Rosa, CaliforniaDescendants of Light: American Photographers of Jewish AncestrySolo2011New York Public Library, New York, New YorkRecollection: Thirty Years of PhotographyGroup2000The Osher Marin Gallery: San Rafael, CaliforniaThe Jews of Wyoming: Fringe of the Diaspora Solo1995Eiteljorg Museum, Indianapolis, IndianapolisJackalopes, Cowboys and Coalmines: Energy Development and the Culture of the Cowboy Group1994National Museum of American Jewish History, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania The Jews of Wyoming: Fringe of the Diaspora Solo1992Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American History, Washington, DC The Jews of Wyoming: Fringe of the Diaspora Solo1992Judah L. Magnes Museum, Berkeley, CA,The Jews of Wyoming: Fringe of the Diaspora Solo1990Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles, CaliforniaThe Jews of Wyoming: Fringe of the Diaspora Solo1990Wyoming State Museum, Cheyenne, WyomingThe Jews of Wyoming: Fringe of the Diaspora Solo1984Ucross Foundation, Ucross, WyomingJackalopes, Cowboys and Coalmines: Energy Development and the Culture of the Cowboy Solo1980Wyoming State Museum, Cheyenne, WyomingJackalopes, Cowboys and Coalmines: Energy Development and the Culture of the CowboySolo1980The Nicolaysen Art Museum: Casper, WyomingJackalopes, Cowboys and Coalmines: Energy Development and the Culture of the CowboySolo
Selected Assignments
Roman Vishniac Estate: working with Mara Vishniac-Kohn to restore and print her father's photo microscopy work. Life (magazine): American Dreamer column with Anne Fadiman Life (magazine): American Dreamer portrait of Ursula K. Le Guin Wet (magazine): cover of Teri Garr, multiple article illustrations Playboy (magazine): Twenty Questions; Second City Television, John Matuszak, Charlton Heston, Bubba Smith, Leigh Steinberg, Ron Howard Discover (magazine): John Schwarz Conde Nast Traveler: As Others See Us; International Travel to Thailand, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Hawaii Rolling Stone (magazine): The Band, James Caan, Melissa Manchester, Chaka Khan, Michael Mann Esquire (magazine): Jon Jerde Forbes (magazine): David Geffen, Joe Roth, Eric Schmidt Graphis Inc. (magazine): cover of the artist Michael Schwab Vanity Fair (magazine), Discover magazine, Vogue magazine, Travel & Leisure magazine Sonoma Valley Film Festival: Art, Passion and Politics. Films by or about Women; Program Director Wolfgang Puck Food Company: restaurant interiors for Barbara Lazaroff, co-owner and designer Charles Schulz Museum: photographs of on-site art installations by the artists Michael Hayden and Yoshiteru Otani Peter Michael Winery, Cakebread Cellars, Kendall-Jackson Winery, Benovia Winery Cedars-Sinai Medical Center: Discoveries magazine cover and other in-house publications
Teaching Positions Year Position Institution Course2020–PresentAdjunct ProfessorArtCenter College of Design; Pasadena, CaliforniaMFA Program; Visual Literacy Through the Lens2019–PresentAdjunct ProfessorArtCenter College of Design; Pasadena, CaliforniaPhotography for Graphic Designers2019–2022Artist in ResidenceMeaningful Works Consultancy; Los Angeles, CaliforniaLens Based Visual Literacy; Analysis of Word, Image and Light2000Program Director Sonoma Valley Film Festival; Sonoma, CaliforniaArt, Passion and Politics1999Program Director Sonoma Valley Film Festival; Sonoma, CaliforniaFilms by or about Women1998InstructorAcademy of Art University; San Francisco, CaliforniaDocumentary Portraiture1996InstructorArt Center College of Design; Pasadena, CaliforniaHistory of Photography1995InstructorSonoma State University; Cotati, CaliforniaFilm Production1990InstructorArt Center College of Design; Pasadena, CaliforniaDocumentary Portraiture1986InstructorArt Center College of Design; Pasadena, CaliforniaPortraiture1985InstructorCalifornia Institute of the Arts; Valencia, CaliforniaPhotography for Graphic Designers1982InstructorUniversity of Idaho; Moscow, IdahoDocumentary Photography 1970Instructor4-H; Cheyenne, Wyoming Kids and Cameras
Selected Reviews
The New York Times Book Review, She Checked In, and Immediately Checked Out Her Neighbors Matthew Specktor writes, "What makes “Guest Register” so remarkable is not just its gentle spirit, nor even its democratic reach, but rather the expansiveness that grows out of these things together. Captioned in a way that is at once playful and exacting, and coupled with a brief essay that collapses the space between what Wolin calls 'existential Hollywood' and the actual place, these portraits show the opposite of what you might expect: a world in which dreams may be diminished but their originators, these noble occupants of the St. Francis Hotel, are radiant, beautiful, timelessly alive. The New York Times, December 2, 2022 "