Ethan Hoffman photograph collection, 1980-1998

Ethan Hoffman (1950–1990) was an American photographer whose work appeared in magazines such as Fortune, Life, Esquire, Paris Match and Stern and was exhibited at the Smithsonian and other museums. He was a recipient of numerous photo honors including Nikon’s World Understanding Award (1980). In 1989, he founded a New York publishing company Picture Project that promoted photojournalism books. Aside from Concrete Mama, his photos can be found in the books: Butoh: Dance of the Dark Soul (1987), and Flesh and Blood: Photographers’ Images of Their Own Families (1992).

Hoffman was born in Brooklyn, New York and graduated from Hofstra University in 1966 and obtained a master's degree from the University of Missouri in 1970. He began traveling with a camera, with an aim to “discover the world that was out there and to talk about it.” He held a passion for black and white photography and explored worlds that were not like his own, with small populations where he focused his lens on group behavior. He said he always felt a sense of responsibility to the people photographed.

He worked for the Walla Walla Union Bulletin in Washington before partnering with John McCoy to publish “Concrete Mama: Prison Profiles From Walla Walla,” in 1981. It was a book that explored the conditions inside the Washington State Penitentiary. For four months, Hoffman and McCoy lived in the maximum-security compound, observing and befriending both prisoners and guards. They showed a previously unseen culture to the outside world. For this he received the Nikon’s World Understanding Award in 1980.

After this he was recruited to work for Day In The Life, a magazine that had photographers make photographs over the course of a single day across many different locations around the world. He worked in Australia, Spain, Japan, and many other countries. This was the start of his career as a freelance photographer.

Hoffman was the president of Archive Pictures, a photo agency, from 1984 to 1987, and was featured in the London Sunday Times, the Paris Match, the German Stern, the New York Times, Fortune magazine, Esquire, Life, and the Rolling Stones. His corporate clients included American Express, the Bank of Tokyo, Mitsubishi, Chase Manhattan, Bristol-Myers, and Johnson & Johnson. His work has been exhibited in the Smithsonian in Washington, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and the Barbican Gallery in London.

On May 26, 1990, Hoffman fell through a skylight at Wilson Avenue School while on assignment for Fortune Magazine. He went into a coma and died June 1, 1990, at University Hospital in Newark, New Jersey at age 40.

[Sources: Washington Prison History Project website, UW Bothell, accessed January 2024; The New York Times obituary June 4, 1990; and a memorial video produced for their family by his brother Robert Hoffman and sister Caren Hoffman.]