Marjorie Content (1895–1984) was an American photographer from New York City active in modernist social and artistic circles.
[1] She was married several times, including for a short period to Harold Loeb, a writer and the editor of the avant-garde journal, Broom.
One of his partners, Lola Ridge, the magazine's American editor, hosted artists in the office of Broom, which was located in the basement of Content's brownstone townhouse.
[7] Her travels in the West and Southwest with painter Gordon Grant influenced her style toward a more formalist aesthetic.
She briefly worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs photographing rural Native American life.
[6] Other close friends of this period included Stieglitz, Ridge, Sherwood Anderson, Paul Rosenfeld, and Margaret Naumburg, at whose Walden School in New York City both of her children were educated.
[8] In September 1934, one day after her divorce from Leon Fleischman was completed, Content married widowed writer Jean Toomer in Taos, New Mexico.
One scholar describes Content's marriage to Toomer as "a doomed alliance," blaming it for the end of her years of serious art-making.
They maintained many connections with friends from New York, as this area was popular as a retreat for artists and writers from the city, and it had summer theater nearby in New Hope.
Since the late 20th century and the rise of appreciation of photography and women artists, her work has become of interest to collectors and art historians.