Dan Weiner (1919-1959) was born in New York City. When he turned fifteen, an uncle gave him a large-format Voigtlander camera as a gift. Weiner studied painting at the Art Students League and the Pratt Institute, eventually accepting a job as a commercial photographer. He joined the Photo League and developed an affinity for the work of Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, and Russell Lee. Weiner was drafted into World War II and worked as a photography instructor in the Air Force until the end of the war. He discovered the versatility of the 35mm camera and began to use it regularly. Following the war, he pursued work as a photojournalist, refining his belief that the photographer has a moral responsibility to illuminate social ills and to comment on significant events in history. Weiner's goals encountered opposition from magazine editors, who routinely cropped, resized and altered his images, using them in a context not originally intended. Although Weiner felt that the need to bring his images to a large audience was more important than the opposition he faced in presenting them properly, throughout his career he clashed with editors over the presentation of his stories. He stated "my generation is probably the first in history to become conscious of the great forces that are at work in our society through the visual media — the magazine, the newsreel, television — rather than the written word." Weiner's life was tragically ended by a plane crash while he was on assignment in 1959.