John Szarkowski

John Szarkowski ( December 18, 1925 in Ashland, Wisconsin, † July 7, 2007 in Pittsfield, Massachusetts) was an influential American Photography Art historian, art critic, curator and photographer. He was for many years director of the Department of Photography, the photographic division of the New York Museum of Modern Art ( MoMA).

Life and work

John Szarkowski grew up in the small town of Ashland in northern Wisconsin. Already at the age of 11 he became interested in photography. During World War II he served in the United States Army. In 1948 he graduated from the University of Wisconsin -Madison in art history. He then began working in Minneapolis as a museum photographer at the Walker Art Center. From this time he dealt primarily with artistic photography. In 1949 he had his first solo exhibition at the Walker Art Center, more exhibitions followed.

1954 Szarkowski was the first of two Guggenheim Fellowships, which he used for the book The Idea of ​​Louis Sullivan (1956). From 1958 to 1962 he again lived in rural Wisconsin. There he took in 1961 a second Guggenheim Fellowship contrary, which he used to explore the wilderness and the relationship between man and landscape.

1962 chose him as his personal successor Edward Steichen at the Museum of Modern Art as Szarkowski arrived in New York, showed hardly a gallery artistic photographs. So he started the careers of progressive photographers such as Diane Arbus, Lee Friedlander and Garry Winogrand, promote, and "discovered" for example, the French photographer Jacques -Henri Lartigue, pointing whose most famous picture of a car race in 1963 in an exhibition at MoMA.

1973 Szarkowski published the acclaimed reference book Looking at Photographs, the theory deals with the photography and soon became the standard work of art photography at the American art schools. In addition, he has published numerous monographs photographers such as about Ansel Adams, William Eggleston or Irving Penn and, together with Maria Morris Hambourg, the profound photographic complete works of Eugene Atget in four volumes.

Szarkowski taught at Harvard, Yale, Cornell University and New York University. In 1991 he resigned from his post at MoMA and served as Director Emeritus following for photography at the Museum. Szarkowski Board of Trustees and was succeeded by Peter Galassi, the chief curator of the museum.

In retirement Szarkowski returned to their photographic work; mostly it was his intention, the spirit of place, the catch " local spirit " ( genius loci ), the American landscape. In 2005, Szarkowski had several major solo exhibitions in the United States.

John Szarkowski died on 7 July 2007 at the age of 81 of a stroke.

Literature (selection )

Publications by John Szarkowski

Observations and theoretical writings:

  • The Photographer 's Eye. (1966 ) edition of the Museum of Modern Art, 2007, ISBN 978-0-87070-527-4

Photo books

  • John Szarkowski: Photographs (2005)
  • Mr. Bristol 's Barn (1997)
  • The Face of Minnesota ( 1958)
  • The Idea of ​​Louis Sullivan (1956 )

Monographs

  • William Eggleston 's guide. Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern 2002, ISBN 3-7757-1256-9
  • Atget. Edition Skylight, 2002, ISBN 3-283-00410-2

Movie Documentary

There are two cinematic portraits of the Checkerboard Film Foundation about John Szarkowski: A Life in Photography (1998, 45 minutes ) and Speaking of Art: John Szarkowski on John Szarkowski (2005, 60 min), a one-hour documentary in which Szarkowski about his own photographs speaks.

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