Rebecca Norris Webb (born 1956) is an American

photographer A photographer (the Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who uses a camera to make photographs. Duties and types of photograp ...

. Originally a poet, her books often combine text and images. An NEA grant recipient, she has work in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and The Cleveland Museum of Art. Her photographs have appeared in ''The New Yorker'', ''The New York Times Magazine'', ''Le Monde,'' and other magazines. She sometimes collaborates with photographer Alex Webb, her husband and creative partner.

Life and career

Norris Webb was born in

Rushville, Indiana Rushville is a city in Rushville Township, Rush County, Indiana, United States. The population was 6,185 at the 2020 census. The city is the county seat of Rush County. It, like the county, was named in honor of Dr. Benjamin Rush, who signed th ...

and moved to the Black Hills of South Dakota in 1972 at the age of 15. Her photography books often interweave photographs and spare text. These include the monographs—''The Glass Between Us: Reflections on Urban Creatures'' (2006), ''My Dakota: An Elegy for My Brother Who Died Unexpectedly'' (2012), and ''Night Calls'' (2020)—as well as collaborations with her husband and creative partner, Alex Webb: ''Violet Isle: A Duet of Photographs from Cuba'' (2009), ''Memory City'' (2014)'', On Street Photography and the Poetic Image'' (2014)'', Slant Rhymes'' (2017)'', and Brooklyn: The City Within'' (2019). ''My Dakota'' blends her spare text with photographs of her home state of

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state, state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Dakota people, Dakota Sioux ...

where she came of age. For ''Night Calls,'' she retraced the route of some of her 99-year-old doctor father house calls, in the same rural county where they both were born,

Rush County, Indiana Rush County is a county in the U.S. state of Indiana. In the 2020 United States census, the population was 16,752. The county seat (and only city) is Rushville. History When the Indiana Territory was granted statehood (December 20, 1816), ...

. Her work has been exhibited at the

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the list of largest art museums, 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 painting ...

, the

George Eastman Museum The George Eastman Museum, also referred to as George Eastman House and the International Museum of Photography and Film, is a photography museum in Rochester, New York. Opened to the public in 1949, is the oldest museum dedicated to photography ...

, the

Cleveland Museum of Art The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. Located in the Wade Park District of University Circle, the museum is internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian art, Asian and Art of anc ...

, and the

Museum of the City of New York The Museum of the City of New York (MCNY) is a history and art museum in Manhattan, New York City, New York. It was founded by Henry Collins Brown, in 1923Beard, Rick. "Museum of the City of New York" in to preserve and present the history ...

. ''My Dakota'' was first exhibited in 2012 at the Dahl Arts Center in Rapid City, South Dakota, and later exhibited at the

North Dakota Museum of Art The North Dakota Museum of Art (NDMOA) is the official art museum of the American state of North Dakota. Located on the campus of the University of North Dakota, in Grand Forks, North Dakota, the museum is a private not-for-profit institution. ...

in Grand Forks, North Dakota, (2013), the Southeast Museum of Photography, Daytona, Florida, (2013), Ricco/Maresca Gallery in New York City, NYC, (2013), Blue Sky Gallery, Portland, Oregon, (2015), and the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio, (2015). In 2019, she was a 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 ...

grant. Norris Webb teaches photography workshops with her husband and creative partner, Alex Webb.

Publications

Books by Norris Webb

*''The Glass Between Us''. New York: Channel Photographics, 2006. . *''My Dakota''. Santa Fe, NM:

Radius In classical geometry, a radius (: radii or radiuses) of a circle or sphere is any of the line segments from its Centre (geometry), center to its perimeter, and in more modern usage, it is also their length. The radius of a regular polygon is th ...

, 2012. . *''Night Calls''. Santa Fe, NM: Radius, 2020. . *''A Difficulty Is a Light''. Marseille, France: Chose Commune, 2024. .

Books paired with Alex Webb

*''Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb,'' ''Violet Isle''. Santa Fe, NM: Radius, 2009. . *''Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb, Memory City''. Santa Fe, NM: Radius. 2014. . *''Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb on Street Photography and the Poetic Image: The Photography Workshop Series''. New York:

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 ...

, 2014. . *''Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb,'' ''Slant Rhymes''. Madrid: La Fábrica, 2017. . *''Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb, Brooklyn: The City Within''. New York:

, 2019. . *''Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb, Waves.'' Santa Fe, NM: Radius Books. 2022. .

Books with contributions by Norris Webb

*''Contatti. Provini d'Autore'' = ''Choosing the best photo by using the contact sheet''. Vol. I. Edited by Giammaria De Gasperis. Rome, Italy: Postcart, 2012. . *''Picturing America's National Parks''. New York, New York: Aperture, 2016. Co-published with

. . *''ONE''. Santa Fe, New Mexico: Radius, 2017. . *Documentum Issue 2: Pictures and Words. Atlanta, Georgia: Fall Line Press, 2016. *Street Photography: A History In 100 Iconic Images. Edited by David Gibson. Munich, London: Prestel, 2019. . *''Photographers Looking at Photographs: 75 Pictures from the Pilara Foundation''. San Francisco, California: Pier 24, 2019. . *''Women Street Photographers''. Munich; London; New York: Prestel, 2021. Edited by Gulnara Samoilova. . With a foreword by Ami Vitale and an essay by Melissa Breyer. *''Photo No-No's: Meditations on What Not to Photograph''. Edited by Jason Fulford. New York: Aperture, 2021. . Non-English language books * ''My Dakota''. Rome: Postcart, 2016. * ''Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb, Rimas de Reojo''. Madrid: La Fábrica, 2017. .

References

External links

* of Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb
A Spotlight on the Season’s Top Photography Books
by Luc Sante, ''The New York Times''.
Slant Rhymes: Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb on “Memory City”
by Teju Cole, ''The New Yorker''.
Rebecca Norris Webb: "My Dakota"
''Time'' magazine LightBox {{DEFAULTSORT:Webb, Rebecca Norris American photographers 1956 births Living people American women photographers People from Rushville, Indiana 21st-century American women