1903

Born December 4th, New York City.

1915-26

Educated in New York City at De Witt Clinton High School, and City College, B.S.S. in Literature.

1929

Marries Sidonie Glaller; gets his first camera as a honeymoon gift.

1926-47

English instructor in New York City public school system.

1932-35

Active in the New York Workers' Film and Photo League. Buys a Voigtlander Avus.

1936-41

Active in the reorganized New York Photo League. Established the Feature Group, a documentary production unit, as part of the Photo League School. Produced group and independent photo-series including: The Catholic Worker Movement; Dead End: The Bowery; The End of City Repertory Theatre; The Harlem Document; Lost Generation: The Plight of Youth Today; The Most Crowded Block in the World; Park Avenue: North and South; Sixteenth Street: A Cross-section of New York; and Tabernacle City.

1940

Published "The Feature Group" in Photo Notes.

1943-44

Created increasingly symbolic and abstract photographs based on discarded and found objects on Martha's Vineyard and in Gloucester, Massachusetts.

1945

Published "The Drama of Objects" in Minicam Photography. Established close and enduring ties to the artists of the New York School.

1947-49

Taught photography at Trenton Junior College, Trenton, New Jersey.

1947-51

Exhibited regularly at Charles Egan Gallery. Elaine de Kooning wrote "The Photographs of Aaron Siskind" as the introduction to a 1951 exhibition of Siskind's photographs at the gallery.

1950

Wrote "Credo" as an artist's statement for a symposium titled "What is Modern Photography?", organized by Edward Steichen at the Museum of Modern Art, New York City.

1951

Taught with Harry Callahan during the summer at Black Mountain College.

1951-71

At the invitation of Harry Callahan, Siskind joined the faculty of the Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago. He was Professor of Photography until 1959, when he became Director of the Photographic Department. He led and participated in advanced student projects including: Apartment interiors of the Mies van der Rohe Lake Shore Drive Skyscrapers, A Chicago Settlement House, The Chicago Housing Authority, The Complete Architecture of Adler and Sullivan (also called the Louis Sullivan project), Details of the Human Body, The Park System of Chicago, and The Series Form.

Travels in Greece and Rome.

1956

With Harry Callahan, published "Learning Photography at the Institute of Design", in Aperture.

1959

Publication of his first book.

1960-70

Co-editor of Choice Magazine.

1963-64

Founder-member of the Society for Photographic Education.

Board member, Gallery of Contemporary Art, Chicago.

1966-83

Receives numerous awards including: Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, Gold Star of Merit award from Philadelphia College of Art, an NEA grant, and the Governer's Prize for the Arts, Rhode Island.

1969

Founding member of the Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester.

1971-76

Taught photography with Harry Callahan at Rhode Island School of Design, Providence.

1971-1991

An established master, Siskind continues to make photographs and was published and exhibited widely.

1984

Incorporated an eponymous foundation that is set up to inherit his vintage photographs, the income from which he mandates be used in support of contemporary photography.

1991

Died in Providence RI, February 8, 1991 at 87 years old.