George S. Zimbel was an American-Canadian documentary photographer. He worked professionally from the 1940s and was known to have preference of taking pictures of ordinary people. Several of his works are a part of permanent collections in the Museum of Modern Art and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
Zimbel was born in Woburn, Massachusetts where he took a liking to photography at early age and attended Woburn High School where he was the school's yearbook photographer. After high school he a... moreGeorge S. Zimbel was an American-Canadian documentary photographer. He worked professionally from the 1940s and was known to have preference of taking pictures of ordinary people. Several of his works are a part of permanent collections in the Museum of Modern Art and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
Zimbel was born in Woburn, Massachusetts where he took a liking to photography at early age and attended Woburn High School where he was the school's yearbook photographer. After high school he attended Columbia University where he also served as the school's photographer. It is during his time there that he met Garry Winogrand and created Midnight to Dawn Club. Edward Steichen, the then curator of the Museum of Modern Art met Zimbel and showed him original prints by early masters of photography. He credits this as his influence to pursue photograph as a career. Following this Zimbel became a freelance photographer. Two of his best known subjects were Marilyn Monroe's shoot on Lexington Avenue in 1954 to promote her film The Seven Year Itch and JFK. He went on to have a successful career with publications in the New York Times, Look, Redbook and Architectural Digest.
