Tom Palumbo

Who was Tom Palumbo?

Tom Palumbo was an American photographer and theatre director. He was born in Molfetta, Italy, in 1921. His family moved when he was about 12 years old to New York City. As a young man Palumbo was employed first building scale models for ships in an engineering company. Later he was employed as an assistant by photographer James Abbe. His experience working with Abbe led him to commercial work in fashion photography. His early campaign work for Peck & Peck Department Store appeared in Vogue and Bazaar magazines from 1949 to 1953.

He was a staff photographer of Vogue from 1959 until 1962 and at Harper's Bazaar from 1953 until 1959, where he worked with the art directors Alex Liberman and Alexey Brodovitch. He was a vice-president of creative productions at Ted Bates, where he oversaw all TV commercials. He was a lifelong member of the Actors Studio. He taught photography at Rhode Island School of Design, and he taught directing at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. He directed plays Off-Broadway and in regional theatres. His last production was An Evening of Proust at Lincoln Center. He was a member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab.