Todd Webb
Todd Webb (born September 5, 1905 in Detroit , Michigan , † April 15, 2000 in Lewiston , Maine ) was an American photographer.
Webb was best known for his street and architectural photography in New York and Paris, as well as for his documentation of the American West and portraits of the painter Georgia O'Keeffe . His photographic style is compared to that of Berenice Abbott , Eugene Atgets and Walker Evans , but in contrast to these, Webb achieved far less notoriety throughout his life. Webb's work is now on display in major art museums, including the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC
life and work
Todd Webb grew up in Michigan and in a Quaker community in the Canadian province of Ontario . Towards the end of the 1920s, he lost the money he had previously earned as a stockbroker in the Great Depression . In 1929 he moved to California , where he worked as a prospector and ranger for a small salary during the Great Depression . It was at this time that his interest in photography began . He then returned to Detroit and joined the Chrysler Camera Club in 1938 . Under the guidance of Ansel Adams , Webb in Detroit developed a factual, realistic approach in the style of " straight photography ".
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Night shot of the Esso refinery in Baton Rouge Selection of external web links |
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Views of New York Selection of external web links |
During the Second World War Webb served as a photographer in the United States Navy and then went to New York , where he befriended the photographer Alfred Stieglitz and his wife, the painter Georgia O'Keeffe . Stieglitz introduced him to Beaumont Newhall , who curated Webb's first major exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York . Webb's work for the American magazine Fortune , for which he contributed pictures as part of a report on the Standard Oil Company , also falls during this period . Webb's night shot of the Esso refinery in Baton Rouge was one of the magazine's first color covers.
From 1949 on, Webb - now at the height of his career - stayed in Paris for four years, where he met his New York-born wife Lucille. The photos he took there brought him to be compared with the French photographer Eugène Atget .
Equipped with a Guggenheim grant , Webb documented the routes of early American settlers to Oregon and California in 1955 and 1956 . During this time, more than 7,500 photographs were taken in which Webb documented the American West with its ghost towns and other legacies of the gold rush . He covered part of his journey on foot. He later wrote about his impressions in the New York Times : "I have seen this country in a way that I have never seen before."
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Georgia O'Keeffe and New Mexico Selection of External Web Links |
Around 1961, Webb and his wife went to Santa Fe , New Mexico . The photographic portraits of Georgia O'Keeffe created here show the artist, who is known to be irritable, as calm and balanced. In addition to the portraits of O'Keeffe, Webb captured the typical landscape of New Mexico and the animal skull skeletons typical of the artist. In a review of Webb's 1986 book Georgia O'Keeffe, The Artist's Landscape , the art critic Abigail Foerstner noted in the Chicago Tribune that the painter's pictures would bring the painter to life even if they were not present in the photograph.
In later years, Webb and his wife first lived in Provence, France and Bath , England , before moving to near Portland , Maine , USA . In 2000, Todd Webb died at Lewiston's Central Maine Medical Center at the age of 94 .
Book publications
During his lifetime
- Gold Strikes and Ghost Towns - Doubleday Press, 1961
- The Gold Rush Trails and the Road to Oregon - Doubleday Press, 1963
- Nineteenth Century Texas Homes - University of Texas Press, 1966
- Georgia O'Keeffe, The Artist's Landscape - Twelvetrees Press, 1984
- Todd Webb: Photographs of New York and Paris - Hallmark Cards, 1986
- Looking Back: Memoirs and Photographs of Todd Webb . University of New Mexico Press, 1991
- Todd Webb: New York, Paris, O'Keeffe, Friends . Mega Press, Japan, 1998
- Todd Webb: A Photographer's Welcome Home, University of Maine Press . 2008
- After Atget: Todd Webb Photographs New York and Paris . Bowdoin College Museum of Art, 2011
- Todd Webb: New York, 1946 . 21st Editions, 2015
- On the Street and in the Studio; Photographs Donated by Howard Greenberg . The Dorsky Museum of Art, 2016
Web links
- Todd Webb Archive - official website with a selection of Webb's photographs
- Todd Webb on the website of the International Center of Photography
Remarks
- ↑ a b c d e Todd Webb, 94, Peripatetic Photographer . In: New York Times , April 22, 2000; Retrieved April 22, 2017.
- ↑ a b c d e f Biography . In: Todd Webb Archive; Retrieved April 22, 2017.
- ↑ a b Kacy Burdette: See 1940s New York City Through The Eyes of a Fortune Photographer , in: Fortune of April 17, 2017, last accessed on April 22, 2017.
- ^ "I had seen the country as I never had before," Todd Webb, 94, Peripatetic Photographer . In: New York Times , April 22, 2000; Retrieved April 22, 2017.
- ^ William Zimmer: Exploring the Affinities Among Painting, Music and Dance . In: New York Times , December 31, 2000; Retrieved April 22, 2017.
- ↑ "Todd Webb's dramatic landscapes and scenes at O'Keeffe's Ghost Ranch in New Mexico bring the artist to life even in pictures where she doesn't appear.", Abigail Foerstner, review of Todd Webb's Georgia O'Keeffe, The Artist's Landscape , contained in Books For Photographers, Fans . In: Chicago Tribune , December 5, 1986; Retrieved April 22, 2017.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Webb, Todd |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Webb, Charles Clayton |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American photographer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 5, 1905 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Detroit , Michigan |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 15, 2000 |
| Place of death | Lewiston (Maine) |