17 Facts About Elsa Dorfman

Elsa B Dorfman was an American portrait photographer.

Elsa Dorfman worked in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was known for her use of a large-format instant Polaroid camera.

Elsa Dorfman was the eldest of three daughters of Arthur and Elaine.

Elsa Dorfman's father worked at a grocery chain as a produce buyer; her mother was a housewife.

Elsa Dorfman studied at Tufts University, where she majored in French literature.

Elsa Dorfman graduated in 1959 and subsequently moved to New York City, where she was employed as a secretary by Grove Press, a leading Beat publisher.

Elsa Dorfman made her first sale two months later, in August 1965, for $25 of a photograph of Charles Olson which was used on the cover of his book The Human Universe.

Elsa Dorfman photographed staples of the Boston rock scene such as Jonathan Richman, frontman of The Modern Lovers, and Steven Tyler of Aerosmith.

Elsa Dorfman photographed people, both with and without AIDS, each engaged in one of forty activities that might help AIDS victims in their daily life.

Elsa Dorfman was known for her use of the Polaroid 20 by 24 inch camera, from which she created large prints.

Elsa Dorfman photographed famous writers, poets, and musicians including Bob Dylan and Allen Ginsberg.

Elsa Dorfman stocked up with a year's supply of her camera's last available 20 by 24 instant film.

Elsa Dorfman's portraits are held in the collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, the Harvard Art Museums, the Portland Museum of Art in Maine and others.

In 1967, Elsa Dorfman met Harvey Silverglate, who was representing the defense in a drug trial.

Elsa Dorfman thought the case could be the subject of a book and talked it over with him, after which Silverglate asked her to take a portrait of him and his brother to give to their mother.

Elsa Dorfman died on May 30,2020, at her home in Cambridge.

Elsa Dorfman was 83 according to her husband and she suffered kidney failure.