Born in the town of Drohiczan, Sandra Weiner immigrated with her parents to the United States in 1928. She met the photographer Dan Weiner in 1940 and took photography courses from him as well as from Paul Strand at the Photo League; she and Weiner were married in 1942. In 1947 she began working with her husband on his freelance assignments for Fortune, LIFE, Sports Illustrated, Harper's Bazaar, and other publications, and continued collaborating until his death in a plane crash in 1959. Sandra Weiner worked as a picture editor for Sports Illustrated afterwards, and in the late 1960s wrote children's books, which she illustrated with her own photographs. The first, It's Wings That Make Birds Fly (1968), included an introduction by Gordon Parks, and was followed by Small Hands, Big Hands (1970), They Call Me Jack (1973), and I Want to be a Fisherman (1977). Weiner taught photography at New York University and at the City University of New York. Her work has been exhibited at several New York galleries, the Akron Museum of Art in 1996, and the Port Washington Public Library.
Sandra Weiner is the author of many exceptional pictures constituting a distinctive body of work. Her acute perception of individual character, especially that of children, and her subtle rendering of neighborhood atmospheres make her documentary pictures of New York some of the most insightful works of their time and genre.
Lisa Hostetler
Handy et al. Reflections in a Glass Eye: Works from the International Center of Photography Collection, New York: Bulfinch Press in association with the International Center of Photography, 1999, p. 231.
