John Szarkowski

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

Live and act

John Szarkowski grew up in the small town of Ashland in northern Wisconsin. At the age of 11 he began to be 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 as a museum photographer at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis . From this point on, he mainly dealt with artistic photography. In 1949 he had his first solo exhibition at the Walker Art Center, and other exhibitions followed.

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

In 1962 Edward Steichen chose him as his personal successor at the Museum of Modern Art. When Szarkowski arrived in New York, hardly any gallery showed artistic photographs. So he began to promote the careers of progressive photographers such as Diane Arbus , Lee Friedlander or Garry Winogrand , and "discovered", for example, the French photographer Jacques-Henri Lartigue when he showed his best-known picture from a car race in 1963 in an exhibition at MoMA.

In 1973 Szarkowski published the highly acclaimed textbook Looking at Photographs , which deals theoretically with photography and which soon became the standard work of art photography at American art schools. He has also published numerous photographer monographs such as those on Ansel Adams , William Eggleston and Irving Penn and, together with Maria Morris Hambourg, the profound photographic oeuvre of Eugène Atget in four volumes.

Szarkowski has taught at Harvard , Yale , Cornell University and New York University . In 1991 he resigned from his position at MoMA and subsequently became director emeritus for photography at the museum. Szarkowski's successor on the board of trustees was Peter Galassi, the museum's chief curator.

In retirement, Szarkowski returned to his own photographic work; mostly he wanted to capture the spirit of place , the “local spirit” ( genius loci ), of the American landscape. In 2005, Szarkowski had several major solo exhibitions in the United States.

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

Literature (selection)

Publications by John Szarkowski

Considerations and theoretical writings:

  • The Photographer's Eye . (1966) New edition from the Museum of Modern Art, 2007, ISBN 978-0-87070-527-4
  • Looking at Photographs: 100 Pictures from the Collection of the Museum of Modern Art . (1974) New edition Little, Brown & Company, 1999, ISBN 0-8212-2623-1

Photo books

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

Monographs

Documentary film

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

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Philip Gefter: John Szarkowski, Curator of Photography, Dies at 81. The New York Times, July 9, 2007, accessed April 23, 2008 .
personal data
SURNAME Szarkowski, John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American photography art historian, art critic, curator, and photographer
DATE OF BIRTH December 18, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH Ashland, Wisconsin
DATE OF DEATH July 7, 2007
Place of death Pittsfield, Massachusetts