John Szarkowski Explained

John Szarkowski
Birth Name:	Thaddeus John Szarkowski
Birth Date:	18 December 1925
Birth Place:	Ashland, Wisconsin
Death Place:	Pittsfield, Massachusetts
Nationality:	American
Field:	Photography curator

Thaddeus John Szarkowski (December 18, 1925 – July 7, 2007)^[1] was an American photographer, curator, historian, and critic.^[2] From 1962 to 1991 Szarkowski was the director of photography at New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).^[3]

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 from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He then began his career as a museum photographer at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.

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 Fellowships, resulting in the book The Idea of Louis Sullivan (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.^[4] Edward Steichen chose Szarkowski as his successor. In 1973 Szarkowski began service to the National Endowment for the Arts 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)^[5] identifying a dichotomy between strategies of pictorial expression in American photography; "It seems to this viewer that the difference between [Minor] White and [Robert] Frank 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, Ralph Gibson, Duane Michals, Judy Dater and others; while the idea of the 'Window' is found in the documentary approach, exemplified by inclusions of work by Diane Arbus, Lee Friedlander, Henry Wessel, Joel Meyerowitz, and Garry Winogrand.

He taught at Harvard, Yale, and New York University, and continued to lecture and teach. From 1983 to 1989, he was an Andrew Dickson White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University.^[6] 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".^[7]

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.^{[8] [9]}

Szarkowski continued to write and curate exhibitions at MoMA and elsewhere, like Alfred Stieglitz at Lake George and Ansel Adams 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, subsequently exhibited at MoMA in early 2006.^[10] 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, aged 81.^[11]

Publications of photographic works

• The Idea of Louis Sullivan, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 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, text by Sandra S. Phillips.^[12] Toured to Museum of Modern Art, New York^[13]

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.)^[14]
• 1963: Five Unrelated Photographers: Ken Heyman. George Krause. Jerome Liebling. Minor White, and Garry Winogrand. (No catalogue.)^[15]
• 1963: The Photographs of Jacques Henri Lartigue. (No ISBN), ASIN B0018MX7JK.^[16]
• 1963: The Photographer and the American Landscape. .^[17] (Reprints in 1966 and 1971.)
• 1964: André Kertész, Photographer. . Retrospective exhibition.^[18]
• 1965: The Photo Essay. (No catalogue.) Survey on magazine work.^[19]
• 1966: The Photographer's Eye. ISBN 0-87070-525-3. Exhibited in several parts since 1964.^[20]
• 1966: Dorothea Lange. (No ISBN). Retrospective exhibition. Introductory essay by George P. Elliott.^[21]
• 1967: Once Invisible. (No catalogue.)^[22]
• 1967: New Documents. (No catalogue.) Seminal exhibition featuring Diane Arbus, Lee Friedlander and Garry Winogrand.^[23]
• 1968: Henri Cartier-Bresson. (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."^[24]
• 1968: Brassaï, Photographs. Retrospective exhibition.^[25]
• 1969: Bill Brandt. "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.^[26]
• 1969/1970: Atget. (No catalogue.) Retrospective exhibition.^[27]
• 1969/1970: Garry Winogrand: The Animals. 2nd ed. 2004, ISBN 0-87070-633-0.^[28]
• 1970/1971: E.J. Bellocq: Storyville Portraits. ISBN 0-87070-250-5.^[29]
• 1970: Bruce Davidson: East 100th Street. Harvard University Press, ISBN 0-67422-436-1.^[30]
  • 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. ISBN 0-87070-312-9.^[31] Retrospective exhibition.
• 1972: Atget's Trees. (No catalogue.)^[32]
• 1972/1973: Diane Arbus.^[33] The retrospective exhibition was accompanied by the Aperture 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.)^[34]
• 1973: From the Picture Press. ISBN 0-87070-334-X. Survey on photo-journalism.^[35]
• 1974: with Shoji Yamagishi: New Japanese Photography. ISBN 0-87070-503-2.^[36]
• 1976: William Eggleston's Guide. ISBN 0-87070-317-X.^[37]
  • 2002: newly mastered edition. ISBN 0-87070-378-1.
• 1976: Callahan. ISBN 0-900406-83-6.^[38]
• 1978: Mirrors and Windows: American Photography since 1960. ISBN 0-87070-475-3.^[39]
• 1979: Ansel Adams and the West. Retrospective with 153 prints. Accompanying book published as Yosemite and the Range of Light, ISBN 0-87070-649-7.^{[40] [41]}
• 1981: American Landscapes. ISBN 0-87070-207-6.^[42]
• 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.^[43]
  • 1981: Volume 1, Old France. ISBN 0-87070-204-1.^[44]
  • 1982: Volume 2, The Art of Old Paris. ISBN 0-87070-212-2.^[45]
  • 1983: Volume 3, The Ancien Régime. ISBN 0-87070-217-3.^[46]
  • 1985: Volume 4, Modern Times. ISBN 0-87070-218-1.^[47]
• 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.^[48]
• with John Pultz: Big Pictures by Contemporary Photographers. (No catalogue.)^[49]
• 1984: Irving Penn. ISBN 0-87070-562-8.^[50]
• 1988: Winogrand: Figments from the Real World. ISBN 0-87070-640-3.^[51]
• 1989: Photography Until Now. ISBN 0-87070-573-3. Historical survey on the occasion of photography's 150th anniversary.^[52]
• 1995: Alfred Stieglitz at Lake George. ISBN 0-87070-138-X.^[53]
• 1997: with Richard Benson: A Maritime Album: 100 Photographs and Their Stories. New Haven: Yale University Press, 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 at 100. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. ISBN 0-316-85862-5. Exhibition toured to the Art Institute of Chicago, the Hayward Gallery, London, Kunstbibliothek Berlin, Los Angeles County Museum of Art 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

Origin of a Species. San Francisco: San Francisco Museum of Modern 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, 1996. ISBN 0-679-44975-2.

• Still Life: Irving Penn Photographs, 1938–2000. Boston: Bulfinch, 2001. ISBN 0-8212-2702-5.
• Slide Show: The Color Photographs of Helen Levitt. 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 (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, DVD .
  • 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.
• New York Times obituary in 2007

Notes and References

1. News: John Szarkowski, Eminent Curator of Photography, Dies at 81. Philip. Gefter. 9 July 2007. The New York Times.
2. News: Was John Szarkowski the most influential person in 20th-century photography?. 20 July 2010 . 8 February 2015 . Sean . O'Hagan . Sean O'Hagan (journalist) . .
3. News: Schudel . Matt . John Szarkowski, 81; Cast New Light on Photography . . July 13, 2007.
4. Web site: John Szarkowski, Director, Department of Photography . PDF . 1972 . Moma.org . 24 May 2018.
5. Web site: Mirrors and Windows. American photography since 1960 . Szarkowski . John . exhibition catalogue . Museum of Modern Art . New York, N.Y. . 1978 . MoMA.
6. Web site: Program for Andrew D. White Professors-at-Large. 2018. Cornell University. 8 June 2018.
7. News: American Vision: The eye of John Szarkowski . Horn . Miriam . February 12, 1990 . U.S. News & World Report.
8. Peter Galassi Appointed Director of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art; John Szarkowski Named Director Emeritus. PDF. Moma.org. 2018-05-24.
9. Peter Galassi to Retire from the Museum of Modern Art After 30 Years. Press.moma.org. 2018-05-23. https://web.archive.org/web/20160701084318/http://press.moma.org/wp-content/files_mf/petergalassiretirement_pressreleasefinal14.pdf. 2016-07-01. dead.
10. Web site: John Szarkowski: Photographs February 1 – May 15, 2006 . Museum of Modern Art.
11. News: John Szarkowski, Curator of Photography, Dies at 81 . Gefter . Philip . July 9, 2007 . The New York Times. 14 May 2018.
12. Web site: John Szarkowski: Photographs to Open at SFMOMA . 8 February 2015 . San Francisco Museum of Modern Art . https://web.archive.org/web/20150924100832/http://www.sfmoma.org/about/press/press_exhibitions/releases/234 . 24 September 2015 . dead .
13. Web site: John Szarkowski: Photographs. 2023-02-02 . ., 1 February – 15 May 2006.
14. Web site: The Museum of Modern Art . 2017 . Ernst Haas: Color Photography . 2024-01-26 . With installation views, digitized (PDF) press release and checklist of photographs displayed.
15. Web site: The Museum of Modern Art . 2017 . Five Unrelated Photographers . 2024-01-26 . With installation views, digitized (PDF) press release and checklist of photographs displayed.
16. Web site: The Photographs of Jacques Henri Lartigue . The Museum of Modern Art . 2024-01-24. With installation views, digitized (PDF) catalogue, press release and checklist of photographs displayed.
17. Web site: The Museum of Modern Art . 2017 . The Photographer and the American Landscape. 2024-01-26 . With digitized (PDF) catalogue, press release and checklist of photographs displayed, and installation views.
18. Web site: The Museum of Modern Art . 2017 . André Kertész. 2024-01-26 . With installation views, digitized (PDF) catalogue, press releases and checklist of photographs displayed.
19. Web site: The Museum of Modern Art . 2017 . The Photo Essay. 2024-01-26 . With installation views, digitized (PDF) press release and checklist of photographs displayed.
20. Web site: The Museum of Modern Art . 2017 . The Photographer's Eye . 2024-01-26 . With installation views, digitized (PDF) press release and checklist of photographs displayed. Press release for the book with summary: The Museum of Modern Art. December 5, 1966. The Photographer's Eye . 2024-01-26.
21. Web site: The Museum of Modern Art . 2017 . Dorothea Lange. 2024-01-26 . With installation views, digitized (PDF) catalogue, press releases and checklist of photographs displayed.
22. Web site: The Museum of Modern Art . 2017 . Once Invisible . 2024-01-26 . . With installation views, digitized (PDF) press release and checklist of photographs displayed.
23. Web site: The Museum of Modern Art . 2017 . New Documents. 2024-01-26 . With installation views, digitized (PDF) press releases and checklist of photographs displayed.
24. Web site: Henri Cartier-Bresson . The Museum of Modern Art . 2017 . 2024-01-26 . . With installation views, digitized (PDF) press release and checklist of photographs displayed.
25. Web site: Brassaï . The Museum of Modern Art . 2017 . 2024-01-26 . . With installation views, digitized (PDF) catalogue, press release and checklist of photographs displayed.
26. Web site: Bill Brandt . The Museum of Modern Art . 2017 . 2024-01-26 . . With installation views, digitized (PDF) press release and checklist of photographs displayed.
27. Web site: Atget . The Museum of Modern Art . 2017 . 2024-01-26 . . With installation views, digitized (PDF) press release and checklist of photographs displayed.
28. Web site: Garry Winogrand: The Animals . The Museum of Modern Art . 2017 . 2024-01-26 . . With installation views, digitized (PDF) press release and checklist of photographs displayed.
29. Web site: E.J. Bellocq: Storyville Portraits . The Museum of Modern Art . 2017 . 2024-01-26 . . With installation views, digitized (PDF) catalogue, press release and checklist of photographs displayed.
30. Web site: Bruce Davidson: East 100th Street . The Museum of Modern Art . 2017 . 2024-01-26 . . With installation views, digitized (PDF) press release and checklist of photographs displayed.
31. Web site: Walker Evans . The Museum of Modern Art . 2017 . 2024-01-26 . . With installation views, digitized (PDF) press release and checklist of photographs displayed.
32. Web site: Atget's Trees . The Museum of Modern Art . 2017 . 2024-02-09 . . With installation views, digitized (PDF) press release and checklist of photographs displayed.
33. Web site: Diane Arbus . The Museum of Modern Art . 2017 . 2024-01-26 . . With installation views, digitized (PDF) press releases and checklist of photographs displayed.
34. Press release for the book: The Museum of Modern Art. December 5, 1966. Looking at Photographs. 100 Pictures from the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art . 2024-01-26.
35. Web site: From the Picture Press . Moma.org. 2024-01-24. with installation views, digitized (PDF) catalogue and press release.
36. Web site: New Japanese Photography . The Museum of Modern Art . 2024-01-24. With digitized (PDF) catalogue, press release and checklist of photographs displayed, and installation views.
37. Web site: Photographs by William Eggleston . The Museum of Modern Art . 2017 . 2024-01-26 . . With installation views, digitized (PDF) press releases and checklist of photographs displayed.
38. Web site: Callahan . The Museum of Modern Art . 2024-01-26. With installation views and digitized (PDF) press release.
39. Web site: Mirrors and Windows: American Photography since 1960 . The Museum of Modern Art . 2024-01-24. With digitized (PDF) catalogue, press release and checklist of photographs displayed, and installation views.
40. On the occasion Szarkowski held a lecture on Adams' work and its relation to Alfred Stieglitz and Timothy H. O'Sullivan. See press release (Pdf).
41. Web site: Ansel Adams and the West . Moma.org . 2024-09-18.
42. Web site: American Landscapes . The Museum of Modern Art . 2024-01-26. . With digitized (PDF) catalogue, press release and checklist of photographs displayed, and installation views.
43. Web site: The Work of Atget . Moma.org . 2024-01-24.
44. Web site: The Work of Atget: Old France . Moma.org . 2024-01-24.
45. Web site: The Work of Atget: The Art of Old Paris . Moma.org . 2024-01-24.
46. Web site: The Work of Atget: The Ancien Régime . Moma.org . 2024-01-24.
47. Web site: The Work of Atget: Modern Times . Moma.org . 2024-01-24.
48. Web site: Biography Susan Kismaric . Moma.org . 2024-01-24.
49. Web site: Big Pictures by Contemporary Photographers . The Museum of Modern Art . 2024-01-26. With installation views, digitized (PDF) press release and checklist of photographs displayed.
50. Web site: Irving Penn . The Museum of Modern Art . 2024-02-02. With installation views, digitized (PDF) press release and checklist of photographs displayed.
51. Web site: Garry Winogrand . The Museum of Modern Art . 2024-02-02. With installation views and digitized press releases (PDF).
52. Web site: Photography Until Now . The Museum of Modern Art . 2024-02-02. With installation views, digitized (PDF) press release and checklist of photographs displayed.
53. Web site: Alfred Stieglitz at Lake George . The Museum of Modern Art . 2024-02-02. With introductory text, installation views and digitized press release (PDF).