Social documentary photographer Max Yavno, was born in New York. His background as a social worker had profound influence on his photographic career. Yavno is best known for his street photographs made in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Yavno eventually relocated to the West Coast, and was included in “Seventeen American Photographers,” a 1947 exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art alongside Berenice Abbott, Ansel Adams, Man Ray, and Edward Weston. Following this pivotal exhibition, Yavno published The San Francisco Book in 1948 and The Los Angeles Book in 1950. At the recommendation of Edward Steichen and Edward Weston, Yavno was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1953.