[1] The League's origins traced back to a project of the Workers International Relief (WIR), a Communist association based in Berlin.
[2] In 1934, the still photographers and the filmmakers in the League began having differences of opinion over social and production interests, and by 1936 they had formed separate groups.
[5] In the early 1940s, the list of notable photographers who were active in the League or supported their activities also included Margaret Bourke-White, W. Eugene Smith, Helen Levitt, FSA photographer Arthur Rothstein, Beaumont Newhall, Nancy Newhall, Richard Avedon, Weegee, Robert Frank, Harold Feinstein, Ansel Adams, Edward Weston and Minor White.
[8] Many of the members who joined before the end of World War II were first-generation Americans who strongly believed in progressive political and social causes.
Following this announcement, the Photo League appeared on the Attorney General's List of Subversive Organizations (AGLOSO) published on March 20, 1948, in the Federal Register.
Cineaste Magazine calls the film a "fine addition to the library of documentaries dedicated to remembering the cultural work of the old left.