Ken Bloom was born in 1952 in New York, New York. His parents were children of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. His mother, an early feminist, became a professor of American history, his father was an economist. Though Bloom, the second of three children, moved with his family moved to nearby Blauvelt, NY, he spent much of his childhood with his grandparents in Washington Heights, spending days on end at the Metropolitan Museum and the Museum of Natural History. When old enough to strike out on his own, he spent his time exploring the city streets. Bloom received his first camera at the age of 12. Equally enamored with the then rural area of Blauvelt, he focused his lens on the woods, streams and critters. At 13, he met Nat Fine, a photojournalist who became his first mentor. At 15, he met Hella Hammid, a celebrity photographer and bohemian immigrant living in Manhattan. Bloom became her darkroom assistant, and she, his second mentor.  

In 1974, Bloom graduated from Bucknell University with a B.A. in Japanese Studies. He then partnered in a commercial photography studio. In 1976, Bloom moved to Japan where he lived for 3 years. During that time, he photographed the streets of Tokyo and towns south of the city, documenting public life during a particularly precious era, postwar Japan before the great economic boom of the 1980s. In Japan, he organized independent exhibitions, worked as stringer for LIFE Library of Photography, and eventually as the assistant to the Asia Editor of Time-Life Books, Tokyo. His work as a Tokyo correspondent for American Photographer magazine, connected him with major artists of the Japanese photographic world such as Shomei Tomatsu, Araki and Miyako Ishiuchi, for whom he wrote an introduction to her first book. Each had considerable influence on his developing sense of vision.

After returning to the United States, Bloom worked as a free-lance photographer in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Allentown A Pictorial History was published in 1984, by The Donning Company/Publishers. The book, a collaboration with his first wife, the writer, Marian Wolbers, documents the Pennsylvania Dutch (German) immigrant working class of the city. Other bodies of work from this period include Silk Mill, the culmination of a year spent documenting the workers of the dying silk industry, Street Face, which documented the broad, flat, monochromatic color planes of Allentown’s architecture, and Pennsylvania Man a multi-

version collaborative project. In Pennsylvania, Bloom continued to work as a catalyst for the arts, organizing independent exhibitions for and with the community.

In 1983, Bloom pursued a graduate degree in photography and critical studies with the combined New York University/International Center of Photography program. After graduating, and with two of their soon to be three daughters, Bloom moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, where he became Executive Director of The Light Factory Photographic Arts Center. After three years he moved to the position of Curator of Exhibitions at Charlotte’s Spirit Square Center for the Arts, where he remained until 1994. During his last years in Charlotte he worked as a part-time preparator at The Afro-American Cultural Center while independently organizing arts programs, and working with Laurance Triplette, Inc. Appraisal Services. Bloom’s photography in the Charlotte years was directed at his young family. Bodies of work such as Homelife and Family Values depict a domestic diary.

In 1997, Bloom was recruited by Texas Tech University for the position of Director of Landmark Arts: The Galleries of Texas Tech University. With a growing reputation as a ‘museum fixer,’ this position was followed by that of Executive Director of the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art 2001-04. Though still producing images during these years, Bloom’s focus was to turn more to producing and providing, then to the pursuit of his own visions.

From 2004-19, Bloom was Director of the Tweed Museum of Art, University of Minnesota Duluth. On moving to Minnesota, Bloom resumed his photography enjoying both solo and group shows, of new and old work which with much of it never printed he continues to unearth. His current works include Sightings, the photocollage of The Wilting Point and a series in progress which utilizes altered film negatives.

For over 50 years, Bloom has worked as image maker, curator and program organizer. He has been the recipient of artist grants, has produced numerous exhibitions and has been published in art and photographic magazines. His work is held in museums and private collections.