John Szarkowski dead

Russ Young · Jul 9, 2007

www.nytimes.com/2007/07/09/arts/09szarkowski.html?pagewanted=1

I did not care for his aesthetics choices but nonetheless he was THE major curator of photography in the last four decades and played a key role in bringing it to the public eye as an art form. He was, in a way, a spokesman for us all.

Russ Young

david b · Jul 9, 2007

So sad.

Michel Hardy-Vallée · Jul 9, 2007

That is one major figure departing us. To think that just earlier today Alec Soth was still bitching about him on his blog...

david b · Jul 9, 2007

No, Soth was bitching about Tod Papageorge.

rusty71 · Jul 9, 2007

That is sad news. I didn't always agree with his aesthetics. I met him when I was a student at Visual Studies Workshop back in the early 90's. He was surprisingly accessible and kind to the grads who came to hear his lecture.
He and Beaumont Newhall did more to elevate photography to the level of art than any other historians of the 20th century.

Jim Chinn · Jul 9, 2007

In the 1960s MOMA was the center of the contemporary art world. The New Documents exhibit not only cemented photography's acceptance as a fine art form, but influenced a generation of future photographers and photography instructors to emulate the Arbus/Friedlander/Winngrand "school". It also became a template for other institutions and galleries to follow in building collections.

you can agree or disagree with Szarkowski's curatorial abilities and choices, but I think there is little doubt that he was one of the two or three most important people with regards to photography in the last half of the 20th century.

Richard Boutwell · Jul 10, 2007

This, along with the passing of other luminaries, makes me wonder, who of the contemporary photographers, educators and critics will be seen as being the most influential of our time.

Christopher Nisperos · Jul 10, 2007

rusty71 said:
That is sad news. I didn't always agree with his aesthetics. He and Beaumont (*) Newhall did more to elevate photography to the level of art than any other historians of the 20th century.

(*) and Nancy

.

donbga · Jul 10, 2007

Christopher Nisperos said:
(*) and Nancy

.

Some would argue that B/N excluded photographers that deserved recognition. I'm not knocking what they did or didn't do but just throwing that out.

John Szarkowski dead

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