Lois Conner (born 1951) is an American photographer. She is noted particularly for her

platinum print Platinum prints, also called ''platinotypes'', are photographic prints made by a monochrome photographic printing, printing process involving platinum. Platinum tones range from warm black, to reddish brown, to expanded mid-tone grays that are ...

landscapes that she produces with a 7" x 17" format banquet camera.

Early life

Conner was born in New York City in 1951 and grew up in southern Pennsylvania. She dedicated herself to the arts from a young age: learning about photography from her father at 9 years old, apprenticing with a painter as a teenager, and later studying fashion design and taking dance, art, and photography classes in New York City. Conner credits

Philippe Halsman Philippe Halsman (; ; 2 May 1906 – 25 June 1979) was an American portrait photographer. He was born in Riga in the part of the Russian Empire which later became Latvia, and died in New York City. Life and work Halsman was born in Riga to a Jew ...

, her photography teacher at

The New School The New School is a Private university, private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for p ...

, for her ultimately choosing to study photography.

Education

Lois Conner received her BFA in photography from the

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York. It has an additional campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The institute was founded in 18 ...

. At

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

, where she received her MFA in 1981, she met and studied with Tod Papageorge and Richard Benson. She moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

in 1971 where she worked for the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

until 1984.

Exhibitions

The Sackler Gallery in Washington (National Museum of Art) presented a retrospective of her work, ''Landscape as Culture'', in 1994. Among her other exhibitions were solo shows ''Asie-la ligne du paysage'' (1997) in Lausanne, Switzerland, ''The Silk Road: Trade, Travel, War and Faith'' (2005) and ''Twirling the Lotus: Photographs of China and Tibet'' (2007) in London, ''Beijing: Unfurling the Landscape'' (2014) at

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...

, and ''A Long View'' at the Shanghai Center of Photography (2018). Recent work has included a series of portraits of pregnant women.

Publications

Books of work by Conner

*''China, The Photographs of Lois Conner.'' Callaway Arts & Entertainment, 2000. . *''Lois Conner Photographs.'' 2003. *''Twirling the Lotus.'' 2007. *''Life In A Box.'' 2011. *''Beijing Building.'' London. Rossi & Rossi, 2011. . *''Beijing: Contemporary and Imperial.''

Princeton Architectural Press Princeton Architectural Press (now PA Press) is a division of Chronicle Books. Founded by Kevin Lippert in 1981 in Princeton, NJ, PA Press has been a leading publisher of books on architecture, design, and visual culture for over forty years, ...

, 2014. . *''LOST, Beijing.'' Kris Graves Projects, 2018. *''Lotus Leaves.'' New Zealand. Wairarpa Academy Occasional Publication No. 1, 2018. . Upcoming publications include: ''American Trees'' (

Yale University Art Gallery The Yale University Art Gallery (YUAG) is an art museum in New Haven, Connecticut. It houses a major encyclopedic collection of art in several interconnected buildings on the campus of Yale University. Although it embraces all cultures and period ...

) and ''Beijing Spectacle-Ruination and Reinvention''.

Collections

Conner's work is included in the collections of the

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 ...

, the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

, the Sackler Gallery in Washington, D.C., the

Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM; formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds one of the world's lar ...

, the

Australian National Gallery The National Gallery of Australia (NGA), formerly the Australian National Gallery, is the national art museum of Australia as well as one of the largest art museums in Australia, holding more than 166,000 works of art. Located in Canberra in th ...

in Canberra, the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...

in London and the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

Awards

Conner was awarded

John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation is a private foundation formed in 1925 by Olga and Simon Guggenheim in memory of their son, who died on April 26, 1922. The organization awards Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Gr ...

grants in 1984 and 1985, which enabled her to photograph in China. She was also the recipient of a

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 ...

Fellowship and the

Anonymous Was a Woman "Anonymous Was a Woman" is the fourth episode of the eleventh season of the American police procedural drama ''NCIS'', and the 238th episode overall. It originally aired on CBS in the United States on October 15, 2013. The episode is written b ...

fellowship.

Bibliography

* ''Beijing: Contemporary and Imperial'' (2014),

References

* Davis, Keith F. 'Wanderlust: Work by Eight Contemporary Photographers from the Hallmark Photographic Collection' (Kansas City: Hallmark, 1987), 81. * Feinberg, Jean E. 'Wave Hill Pictured: Celebration of a Garden' (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1991), 17-21.
Princeton University; The Program in Visual Arts; Faculty, s.v. "Lois Conner"
Accessed 23 November 2007.
Union List of Artist Names, s.v. "Conner, Lois"
Accessed 10 September 2006. {{DEFAULTSORT:Conner, Lois 1951 births Living people China Academy of Art Yale School of Art alumni Pratt Institute alumni Photographers from New York City Sarah Lawrence College faculty American women photographers National Endowment for the Arts Fellows American women academics 21st-century American women