Daniel J. Ransohoff

Ransohoff died of pancreatic cancer in a hospital in Cincinnati, on May 29, 1993 and was survived by two daughters, Sallie Ransohoff Kreines and Lela Ransohoff, both of Cincinnati; two brothers, Jerry and William, both of Cincinnati; a stepson, Charles Fleischmann, of Unionville, Pa.; a stepdaughter, Melanie Fleischmann of North Salem, N.Y., and two grandchildren.

Aside from documenting substandard living conditions of the clients of Family Service, for which he was appointed Community Relations Director, he also photographed to show what social work was and the vital roles that social workers performed in the community. With World War II over, there was a new generation of families who needed the assistance of a clinically trained social worker for marital problems, alcoholism, parent-child relationships, and emotional problems, during a time of tremendous change for American families when men were returning from the military services to the workforce, and women who had worked during the war were back at home; together they were producing babies in record numbers. Ransohoff’s specialty was public relations through photography to help families become aware of the ways Family Service could help. In the early 1960s, the New York-based Family Service Association of America published a pamphlet Their Career: Helping People Help Themselves which used Ransohoff’s imagery to recruit young adults into social work.

One example of such imagery was included in 1955 by Edward Steichen in the world-touring Museum of Modern Art exhibition The Family of Man, seen by 9 million viewers and perpetuated in a catalogue that has never been out of print. Ransohoff’s contribution demonstrates his respect for the dignity of his subjects; it is classically and sympathetically composed to show both the interior of an old tenement and its occupant, a resolute old woman in a worn floral dress, top lit and standing next to her rocking chair which is silhouetted against the cheaply curtained window. Author Bill Miller wrote of him in Cincinnati Magazine in May 1968 that, “…his photos have become classics that live on and on, stirring human conscience wherever they are seen.” Many of his photographs appeared in Time, Life, The New Yorker, and on national television

Cincinnati History Library and Archives, Cincinnati Museum Center: The collection covers the years 1934 to 1981. The negatives have been reproduced on microfiche, and the prints are arranged by subject. A finding aid for the collection is available in the library.

Daniel J. Ransohoff (December 29, 1921 – May 29, 1993) was an American associate professor of Community Planning at the University of Cincinnati, and a promoter of the city as a planner, tour guide, historian, professor, photographer and fund-raiser. In the early 1950s, he was on the staff of Family Service, for which he took photographs of the clients the agency was serving.