John Szarkowski
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Thaddeus John Szarkowski (December 18, 1925 – July 7, 2007) was an American photographer,
curator A curator (from , meaning 'to take care') is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the particular ins ...
, historian, and critic. From 1962 to 1991 Szarkowski was the director of photography at New York's
Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...
(MoMA).


Early life and career

He was born and grew up in the small northern Wisconsin city of Ashland, and became interested in photography at age eleven. In World War II Szarkowski served in the U.S. Army, after which he graduated in 1947 in
art history Art history is the study of Work of art, artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Tradit ...
from the
University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...
. He then began his career as a museum photographer at the
Walker Art Center The Walker Art Center is a multidisciplinary contemporary art center in the Lowry Hill, Minneapolis, Lowry Hill neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is one of the most-visited modern and contemporary art museums in ...
,
Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...
. At this time he was also a practicing art photographer; he had his first solo show at the Walker Art Center in 1949, the first of a number of solo exhibitions. In 1954 Szarkowski received the first of two
Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...
s, resulting in the book ''The Idea of
Louis Sullivan Louis Henry Sullivan (September 3, 1856 – April 14, 1924) was an American architect, and has been called a "father of skyscrapers" and "father of modernism". He was an influential architect of the Chicago school (architecture), Chicago ...
'' (1956). Between 1958 and 1962, he returned to rural Wisconsin. There, he undertook a second Guggenheim fellowship in 1961, researching into ideas about wilderness and the relationship between people and the land.


Museum of Modern Art

New York's Museum of Modern Art appointed Szarkowski director of its department of photography, beginning July 1, 1962.
Edward Steichen Edward Jean Steichen (; March 27, 1879 – March 25, 1973) was a Luxembourgish American photographer, painter and curator and a pioneer of fashion photography. His gown images for the magazine ''Art et Décoration'' in 1911 were the first modern ...
chose Szarkowski as his successor. In 1973 Szarkowski began service to the
National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the feder ...
as one of its three photography panelists. In 1973 Szarkowski published ''Looking at Photographs,'' a practical set of examples on how to write about photographs. The book is still required reading for students of photography, and argues for the importance of looking carefully and bringing to bear every bit of intelligence and understanding possessed by the viewer. Szarkowski has also published numerous books on individual photographers, including, with Maria Morris Hamburg, the definitive four-volume work on the photography of Atget. He wrote ''Mirrors and Windows: American Photography Since 1960'' (1978) identifying a dichotomy between strategies of pictorial expression in American photography; "It seems to this viewer that the difference between inorWhite and obertFrank relates to the difference between the goal of self-expression and the goal of exploration." Though not all photographers in the book are American (Frank was Swiss, for example), the pictures were taken and/or exhibited there. The publication is divided almost equally into Parts I (pp. 29–86) and II (pp. 87–148). His 'Mirror' analogy represents self-reflective photography, represented in the book by Jerry Uelsmann,
Paul Caponigro Paul John Jerome Caponigro (December 7, 1932 – November 10, 2024) was an American photographer, writer and pianist. His best known photographs are ''Running White Deer'' and ''Galaxy Apple.'' His subject matter includes landscape and still life, ...
,
Ralph Gibson Ralph Gibson (born January 16, 1939) is an American art photographer best known for his photographic books. His images often incorporate fragments with erotic and mysterious undertones, building narrative meaning through contextualization and ...
, Duane Michals, Judy Dater and others; while the idea of the 'Window' is found in the
documentary A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...
approach, exemplified by inclusions of work by Diane Arbus, Lee Friedlander, Henry Wessel,
Joel Meyerowitz Joel Meyerowitz (born March 6, 1938) is an American street, portrait and landscape photographer. He began photographing in color in 1962 and was an early advocate of the use of color during a time when there was significant resistance to the ide ...
, and Garry Winogrand. He taught at
Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...
,
Yale Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges ch ...
, and
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...
, and continued to lecture and teach. From 1983 to 1989, he was an Andrew Dickson White Professor-at-Large at
Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...
. For the 150th anniversary of the invention of photography he curated a final major exhibition before his retirement, and wrote an accompanying book: ''Photography Until Now''. In 1990, '' U.S. News & World Report'' said: "Szarkowski's thinking, whether Americans know it or not, has become our thinking about photography".


Retirement

In 1991 Szarkowski retired from his post at the MoMA and became the museum's photography director emeritus. He was succeeded by Peter Galassi, the Joel and Anne Ehrenkranz chief curator of the department of photography at The Museum of Modern Art. Szarkowski continued to write and curate exhibitions at MoMA and elsewhere, like ''
Alfred Stieglitz Alfred Stieglitz (; January 1, 1864 – July 13, 1946) was an American photographer and modern art promoter who was instrumental over his 50-year career in making photography an accepted art form. In addition to his photography, Stieglitz was k ...
at Lake George'' and ''
Ansel Adams Ansel Easton Adams (February 20, 1902 – April 22, 1984) was an American landscape photographer and environmentalist known for his Monochrome photography, black-and-white images of the American West. He helped found Group f/64, an association ...
at 100''. Another monograph on Atget was also published. He returned to making his own photographic work, mostly attempting to picture a spirit of place in the American landscape. In 2005 he co-curated his first retrospective of his own work with Sandra S. Phillips at the
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern art, modern and contemporary art museum and nonprofit organization located in San Francisco, California. SFMOMA was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th-century art ...
, subsequently exhibited at MoMA in early 2006. In retirement, Szarkowski served on the boards of several of the mutual funds sold by Dreyfus Corporation. Szarkowski died from complications of a stroke on July 7, 2007, in
Pittsfield, Massachusetts Pittsfield is the most populous city and the county seat of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the principal city of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Berkshire County. Pittsfi ...
, aged 81.


Publications of photographic works

*''The Idea of Louis Sullivan'', Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press The University of Minnesota Press is a university press that is part of the University of Minnesota. It had annual revenues of just over $8 million in fiscal year 2018. Founded in 1925, the University of Minnesota Press is best known for its book ...
, 1956. ASIN B0041LVXMS. *''The Face of Minnesota'', Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1958. ASIN: B0000CK4KY. *''Mr. Bristol's Barn'', Harry N Abrams, 1997. . *''John Szarkowski: Photographs.'' New York: Bulfinch, 2005. . Retrospective exhibition at
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern art, modern and contemporary art museum and nonprofit organization located in San Francisco, California. SFMOMA was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th-century art ...
, text by Sandra S. Phillips. Toured to
Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...
, New York


Exhibitions curated by Szarkowski and accompanying publications

''If not indicated otherwise, all books were published by the Museum of Modern Art, New York. References link to the individual webpage of the exhibition in the museum's digitized archives (MAID). The pages comprise installation views, the original press releases of each exhibition with extensive text, the text of the wall label written by Szarkowski and a complete checklist of the works displayed. The exhibition catalogues (until 1981) are oftentimes also available in digitized form. Exhibitions without accompanying catalogue are simply integrated here, as are the only books not published in conjunction with an exhibition: Looking at Photographs (1973) and the 2000 monograph on Atget.'' *1962: with Grace M. Mayer: '' Ernst Haas: Color Photography''. (No catalogue.) *1963: ''Five Unrelated Photographers: Ken Heyman. George Krause. Jerome Liebling. Minor White, and Garry Winogrand''. (No catalogue.) *1963: ''The Photographs of Jacques Henri Lartigue''. (No ISBN), ASIN B0018MX7JK. *1963: ''The Photographer and the American Landscape''. . (Reprints in 1966 and 1971.) *1964: ''
André Kertész André Kertész (; 2 July 1894 – 28 September 1985), born Andor Kertész (), was a Hungarian-born photographer known for his groundbreaking contributions to photographic composition (visual arts), composition and the photo essay. In the earl ...
, Photographer''. . Retrospective exhibition. *1965: ''The Photo Essay''. (No catalogue.) Survey on magazine work. *1966: ''The Photographer's Eye''. ISBN 0-87070-525-3. Exhibited in several parts since 1964. *1966: '' Dorothea Lange''. (No ISBN). Retrospective exhibition. Introductory essay by George P. Elliott. *1967: ''Once Invisible''. (No catalogue.) *1967: '' New Documents''. (No catalogue.) Seminal exhibition featuring Diane Arbus, Lee Friedlander and Garry Winogrand. *1968: ''
Henri Cartier-Bresson Henri Cartier-Bresson (; 22 August 1908 – 3 August 2004) was a French artist and Humanist photography, humanist photographer considered a master of candid photography, and an early user of 135 film, 35mm film. He pioneered the genre of street ...
''. (No catalogue.) "Recent Photographs ..of the past decade ..drawn entirely from the Museum's collection and includes a retrospective gallery of about 30 photographs from 1929 to about 1950." *1968: ''
Brassaï Brassaï (; pseudonym of Gyula Halász, ; 9 September 1899 – 8 July 1984) was a Hungarian–French photographer, sculptor, medalist, writer, and filmmaker who rose to international fame in France in the 20th century. He was one of the numerou ...
, Photographs''. Retrospective exhibition. *1969: ''
Bill Brandt Bill Brandt (born Hermann Wilhelm Brandt ; 2 May 1904 – 20 December 1983)Paul DelanyBill Brandt: A Life was a British photographer and photojournalism, photojournalist. Born in Germany, Brandt moved to England, where he became known for his ...
''. "The first major one-man exhibition in the country", later touring the US and UK. Instead of a catalogue ''Shadow of Light,'' Viking, New York 1966, was offered. *1969/1970: '' Atget''. (No catalogue.) Retrospective exhibition. *1969/1970: '' Garry Winogrand: The Animals''. 2nd ed. 2004, ISBN 0-87070-633-0. *1970/1971: '' E.J. Bellocq: Storyville Portraits''. ISBN 0-87070-250-5. *1970: '' Bruce Davidson: East 100th Street''. Harvard University Press, ISBN 0-67422-436-1. ** German/English reprint: In Focus Galerie/Locher, Cologne 1999, no ISBN. ** expd. ed.: St. Ann's Press, Los Angeles 2003, ISBN 0-97136-813-9. *1971: ''
Walker Evans Walker Evans (November 3, 1903 – April 10, 1975) was an American photographer and photojournalist best known for his work for the Resettlement Administration and the Farm Security Administration (FSA) documenting the effects of the Great ...
''. ISBN 0-87070-312-9. Retrospective exhibition. *1972: ''Atget's Trees''. (No catalogue.) *1972/1973: '' Diane Arbus''. The retrospective exhibition was accompanied by the
Aperture In optics, the aperture of an optical system (including a system consisting of a single lens) is the hole or opening that primarily limits light propagated through the system. More specifically, the entrance pupil as the front side image o ...
monograph edited by Doon Arbus and Marvin Israel. ISBN 0-912334-40-1. *1973: ''Looking at Photographs. 100 Pictures from the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art''. ISBN 0-87070-514-8. (Book only.) *1973: ''From the Picture Press''. ISBN 0-87070-334-X. Survey on photo-journalism. *1974: with Shoji Yamagishi: ''New Japanese Photography''. ISBN 0-87070-503-2. *1976: '' William Eggleston's Guide''. ISBN 0-87070-317-X. **2002: newly mastered edition. ISBN 0-87070-378-1. *1976: '' Callahan''. ISBN 0-900406-83-6. *1978: ''Mirrors and Windows: American Photography since 1960''. ISBN 0-87070-475-3. *1979: ''
Ansel Adams Ansel Easton Adams (February 20, 1902 – April 22, 1984) was an American landscape photographer and environmentalist known for his Monochrome photography, black-and-white images of the American West. He helped found Group f/64, an association ...
and the West''. Retrospective with 153 prints. Accompanying book published as ''Yosemite and the Range of Light,'' ISBN 0-87070-649-7. *1981: ''American Landscapes''. ISBN 0-87070-207-6. *1981–1985: with Maria Morris Hambourg: ''The Work of Atget''. Spring Industries Series on the Art of Photography. ISBN 0-87070-205-X (Four volume set). Each exhibition travelled through the US. **1981: ''Volume 1, Old France.'' ISBN 0-87070-204-1. **1982: ''Volume 2, The Art of Old Paris''. ISBN 0-87070-212-2. **1983: ''Volume 3, The Ancien Régime''. ISBN 0-87070-217-3. **1985: ''Volume 4, Modern Times''. ISBN 0-87070-218-1. *1982: ''20th Century Photographs from the Museum of Modern Art = 20世紀の写真 : ニューヨーク近代美術館コレクション展''. (English and Japanese). Exhibition at Seibu Museum of Art, Tokyo. Selection by Szarkowski and Susan Kismaric, essay by Szarkowski. *with John Pultz: ''Big Pictures by Contemporary Photographers''. (No catalogue.) *1984: ''
Irving Penn Irving Penn (June 16, 1917October 7, 2009) was an American photographer known for his fashion photography, portraits, and still lifes. Penn's career included work at ''Vogue (magazine), Vogue'' magazine, and independent advertising work for clie ...
''. ISBN 0-87070-562-8. *1988: ''Winogrand: Figments from the Real World''. ISBN 0-87070-640-3. *1989: ''Photography Until Now''. ISBN 0-87070-573-3. Historical survey on the occasion of photography's 150th anniversary. *1995: ''
Alfred Stieglitz Alfred Stieglitz (; January 1, 1864 – July 13, 1946) was an American photographer and modern art promoter who was instrumental over his 50-year career in making photography an accepted art form. In addition to his photography, Stieglitz was k ...
at Lake George''. ISBN 0-87070-138-X. With introductory text, installation views and digitized press release (PDF). *1997: with Richard Benson: ''A Maritime Album: 100 Photographs and Their Stories''. New Haven:
Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day and Clarence Day, grandsons of Benjamin Day, and became a department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and ope ...
, and Newport News: The Mariners' Museum. ISBN 0-300-07342-9. *2000: ''Atget.'' ISBN 0-87070-094-4. (Book only.) *2001: with Sandra S. Phillips: ''
Ansel Adams Ansel Easton Adams (February 20, 1902 – April 22, 1984) was an American landscape photographer and environmentalist known for his Monochrome photography, black-and-white images of the American West. He helped found Group f/64, an association ...
at 100''.
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern art, modern and contemporary art museum and nonprofit organization located in San Francisco, California. SFMOMA was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th-century art ...
. ISBN 0-316-85862-5. Exhibition toured to the
Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. The museum is based in the Art Institute of Chicago Building in Chicago's Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park. Its collection, stewa ...
, the
Hayward Gallery The Hayward Gallery is an art gallery within the Southbank Centre in central London, England and part of an area of major arts venues on the South Bank of the River Thames. It is sited adjacent to the other Southbank Centre buildings (the Royal ...
, London, Kunstbibliothek Berlin,
Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum). LACMA was founded in 1961 ...
and MoMA, New York in 2003.


Writing contributions by Szarkowski

* Robert Adams: ''The New West. Landscapes along the Colorado Front Range.'' Boulder: Colorado Associated University Press, 1974. ISBN 0-87081-058-8. *''The Portfolios of Ansel Adams.'' Boston: Bulfinch, 1977. ISBN 0-8212-0723-7. *''Ansel Adams: Classic Images.'' Boston: Little, Brown & Co, 1986. ISBN 0-8212-1629-5. "The Museum Set" selected by Adams, introduction by Szarkowski, essay by James Alinder. * ''Lee Friedlander,'' Seibu Museum of Art and the Asahi Shimbun, Tadashi Furukawa & Kosei, 1987, ISBN 4333012708 (Japanese/English). *''
Wright Morris Wright Marion Morris (January 6, 1910 – April 25, 1998) was an American novelist, photographer, and essayist. He is known for his portrayals of the people and artifacts of the Great Plains in words and pictures, as well as for experimenting wit ...
: Origin of a Species.'' San Francisco:
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern art, modern and contemporary art museum and nonprofit organization located in San Francisco, California. SFMOMA was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th-century art ...
, 1992. ISBN 0-918471-24-9. Ed. by Sandra S. Phillips. *'' Jan Groover: Photographs.'' Boston: Bulfinch, 1993. ISBN 0-8212-2006-3. *'' Bellocq: Photographs from Storyville, the Red-Light District of New Orleans.'' New York:
Random House Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the foll ...
, 1996. ISBN 0-679-44975-2. *''Still Life:
Irving Penn Irving Penn (June 16, 1917October 7, 2009) was an American photographer known for his fashion photography, portraits, and still lifes. Penn's career included work at ''Vogue (magazine), Vogue'' magazine, and independent advertising work for clie ...
Photographs, 1938–2000.'' Boston: Bulfinch, 2001. ISBN 0-8212-2702-5. *''Slide Show: The Color Photographs of
Helen Levitt Helen Levitt (August 31, 1913 – March 29, 2009) was an American photographer and cinematographer. She was particularly noted for her street photography around New York City. David Levi Strauss described her as "the most celebrated and lea ...
.'' New York: powerHouse Books, 2005. ISBN 1-57687-252-1.


Further reading

*Hilton Als: "Looking at Pictures." ''Grand Street.'' No. 59, p. 102.year missing *Philip Gefter: "The Photographer's Curator Curates His Own." ''The New York Times'', (January 30, 2005) *Andy Grundberg: "An Interview with John Szarkowski." ''Afterimage'', Volume 12 No. 3 (October 1984), pages 12–13. * Mark Haworth-Booth: "An Interview with John Szarkowski." ''History of Photography'', Vol. 15, No. 4 (1991), pages 302–306. * Sarah Hermanson Meister: ''Arbus, Friedlander, Winogrand. New Documents, 1967.'' Essay by Max Kozloff. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2017. ISBN 978-0-87070-955-5. *"An interview with John Szarkowski." ''
Modern Painters Modern may refer to: History *Modern history ** Early Modern period ** Late Modern period *** 18th century *** 19th century *** 20th century ** Contemporary history * Moderns, a faction of Freemasonry that existed in the 18th century Philosophy ...
'' (Spring 2004).author missing


Documentaries about Szarkowski

*''John Szarkowski: A Life in Photography.'' 48-minute documentary on his life and work, produced by Richard B. Woodward, directed by Sandy McLeod. Checkerboard Film Foundation, 1998.
VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...
,
DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...
. ** online video: San Francisco: Kanopy Streaming, 2015. . *''Speaking of Art: John Szarkowski on Ansel Adams.'' 37-minute film of a slide-lecture. Checkerboard/Films Media Group, 2004. DVD . ** online video: San Francisco: Kanopy Streaming, 2015. . *''Speaking of Art: John Szarkowski on Eugène Atget.'' 45-minute film of a slide-show lecture. Checkerboard/Films Media Group, 2004. DVD . ** online video: San Francisco: Kanopy Streaming, 2015. . *''Speaking of Art: John Szarkowski on John Szarkowski.'' 60-minute film of a lecture on his own photography. Checkerboard/Films Media Group, 2005. . ** online video: San Francisco: Kanopy Streaming, 2015. .


External links


John Szarkowski
on MoMA homepage with 40 photographs of his in the museum's collection.
''LA Weekly'' interview
with Szarkowski from December 2006. "Talking Pictures" by Holly Myers and Tom Christie.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Szarkowski, John 1925 births 2007 deaths People associated with the Museum of Modern Art (New York City) American art curators 20th-century American photographers Cornell University faculty Harvard University faculty New York University faculty People from Ashland, Wisconsin Photography critics Photography curators Historians of photography University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Letters and Science alumni Yale University faculty