Artist Biographies
William Eggleston
American, 1937-
William Eggleston took a serious interest in photography when he discovered the work of Henri Cartier-Bresson and Walker Evans while a student at
Vanderbilt University in 1962. Like Cartier-Bresson, Eggleston's photographs rely heavily on ironic formal juxtapositions, with the added consideration of color. His
work also depends on the banality of his subjects: the familiar people and places of his native Memphis and northern Mississippi. Like snapshots, his photographs
are candid and commonplace, though they lack the snapshot's posed artifice and sentimental associations. Instead, Eggleston relies on straightforward
documentation to effect a cool, often uncanny, distance between viewer and subject.
Eggleston was among the first photographers to work regularly with new color technologies of the late 1960s and early 1970s. In 1967 he presented
his work using color negative film to John Szarkowski, then director of the department of photographs at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Nine years
later Szarkowski organized Eggleston's first solo exhibition at that museum, 75 dye transfer prints.
In 1977 Caldecot Chubb, a close friend and supporter, published Eggleston's monograph
Election Eve, which included work based on
Alexander Gardner's Sketchbook of the Civil
War. In 1978 Eggleston was invited to conduct research in color video at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His
awards include fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation (1974) and the National Endowment for the Arts (1975, 1978). He has photographed in
Kenya (1980), Berlin, Salzburg, and Graz for his series
Kiss Me Kracow (1983), Egypt (1986), England for the series
English Rose (1988), the Transvaal (1989),
and Spain (1990). He has also received commissions to shoot on location for John Huston's film
Annie (1982), David Byrne's True
Stories (1986), and throughout Elvis Presley's mansion, Graceland (1983). A major monograph,
The Democratic Forest, was released in 1989, with an introduction by Eudora Welty.
Eggleston also collaborated with writer Willie Morris on
Faulkner's Mississippi, a book of photographs and accompanying text (1990). Eggleston lives in Memphis. A.W.
Peter Henry Emerson
British, b. Cuba, 1856-1936
Trained as a physician, Peter Henry Emerson abandoned medicine soon after receiving his degree in order to take up photography. His thorough command
of the medium and his interest in reproducing rural subjects in a simple, direct manner led to an approach that he called naturalism. Emerson argued
vehemently that the inherent qualities of photography should be used to portray subjects in a manner that eschewed artifice and the unnatural intrusions of
the photographer's aesthetic style. This was in distinction to the academicism that Emerson despised, exemplified by the artificially constructed, often cloying
images of Oscar G. Rejlander and Henry Peach Robinson.
Emerson's several illustrated volumes of rural British life, beginning with
Life and Landscape on the Norfolk Broads (1886), combined a clarity of
vision derived from the advanced science of his day with a retrospective romanticism derived from French and British painting. The result was a unique style
that helped direct photography away from artifice toward the visual integrity now associated with modernism and straight photography. Emerson's attempts as
a writer and speaker to develop a theoretical base for his style, while highly regarded, are today thought to be a less powerful statement of his opinions than
the work he produced. T.W.F.
Frederick H. Evans
British, 1853-1943
Born in Whitechapel, London, Frederick Evans was the preeminent architectural photographer of his day, known particularly for his views of British
cathedrals. He was also known for portraiture, with sitters such as George Bernard Shaw and Aubrey Beardsley.
Originally a London bookseller, Evans retired in 1898 to devote himself full-time to photography. He was a passionate devotee of straight, or pure,
photography. His elegant, unaltered platinum prints relied on form and light to probe the spiritual elements of architectural space and to reveal the character and
nuance of the subjects of his portraits. Evans, who exhibited his work widely, extended his aesthetic beliefs to the realm of display; he is credited with
transforming British exhibition practicethe crowded Victorian salon giving way to a venue where prints were shown singly and clearly, out of competition with one another.
Alfred Stieglitz was a great admirer of Evans's work, which was published in
Camera Work (1903) and shown at the Little Galleries of the
Photo-Secession in New York (1906). A member of the Royal Photographic Society, Evans was named an Honorary Fellow in 1925 and was elected to the Linked Ring
in 1900. T.W.F.
Walker Evans
American, 1903-1975
Greatly admired for his photographs of America during the Great Depression, Walker Evans (born in St. Louis) originally wanted to be a writer. He studied
literature and languages at Phillips Academy in Massachusetts, then spent one year at Williams College. In 1926 he traveled to Paris, where he audited courses
at the Sorbonne before moving to New York City in 1927. Over the next two years Evans developed a strong interest in photography, taking numerous pictures
of New York. The unusual viewpoints and sharp angles of this early work reveal his awareness of contemporary European photography. Also influential was
the work of Eugène Atget and Paul Strand, whose strong, direct style Evans admired.
In 1931 Evans undertook his first major photographic project in collaboration with Lincoln Kirstein: a series of photographs of New England
architecture for a proposed book by architectural historian John Brooks Wheelwright. A selection of these photographs was later exhibited at the Museum of Modern
Art, New York (1933). From 1935 to early 1937, Evans worked for the Resettlement Administration (later known as the Farm Security Administration),
documenting the effects of the depression. He spent most of his time traveling through the South, taking photographs in the clear, straightforward manner for which he
became famous. His subjects ranged from rural farmers and miners to roadside architecture and main streets. In 1936 Evans took three weeks' leave from the
fsa to work with writer James Agee on an illustrated article on tenant farm families for
Fortune magazine. This collaborative project later appeared in book form
as Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (1941).
In 1938 the Museum of Modern Art organized a major traveling exhibition of Evans's pictures, accompanied by the book
American Photographs. Two years later Evans received the first of three fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (1940, 1941, 1959). From 1943-45 he worked
as a writer for Time magazine and from 1945-65 was on the staff of
Fortune, producing numerous portfolios and photographic essays. Evans then moved to
New Haven, Connecticut, to join the faculty of Yale University as professor of photography/graphic design; in 1974 he was named professor emeritus. M.M.
Emmanuel Evzerikhin
Soviet, b. Azerbaijan, 1911-1984
Emmanuel Evzerikhin, born in Baku, Azerbaijan, worked as a photojournalist for the Tass news agency in the early 1930s and during World War II. Some of
his best known images were taken as a war correspondent covering the Battle of Stalingrad and the Liberation of Byelorussia. M.M.
Roger Fenton
British, 1819-1869
Despite the relative brevity of his career, Roger Fenton stands among the most important and accomplished British photographers. Born in
Heywood, Lancashire, to a wealthy family, Fenton graduated from University College in London and in 1844 may have studied painting in the Paris studio of
Paul Delaroche, along with several other important future photographers. After returning to England, he spent four years earning a degree as a solicitor, continued
to paint, and developed an interest in photography before joining a London law firm in 1851.
Fenton's paintings were shown annually in London at the Royal Academy from 1849-51. After helping to found the Calotype Club (1847), in 1852
he published an article that advocated establishment of a British photographic organization modeled after the Société héliographique in France. His argument,
combined with the lifting of the use restrictions on William Henry Fox Talbot's patent for the calotype, led to formation of the London Photographic Society;
Fenton served as its first honorary secretary. In December 1852, an early exhibition of the new society included 39 of his views. Soon afterward, he accompanied
his friend Charles Vignoles to Russia to photograph the construction of a bridge at Kiev. Traveling to the Crimea in 1855, Fenton was the first photographer to
make a sustained sequence of war views. He also accepted commissions to document the collections of the British Museum and to photograph the royal family
at Buckingham and Windsor castles.
Among Fenton's best work are his photographs of landscapes and architecture. His still lifes are exceptional. His viewswhether of great expanses
of garden and lawn, of Balaklava, or of fishermen at a local streamhave an artistic consistency, grandeur of vision, and command of technique comparable
only to the work of Édouard Baldus in France and Carleton E. Watkins in America. In 1862, judging the quality of photography to have declined, Fenton sold all
his equipment at auction and returned to the law. His negatives were bought by Francis Frith, whose publishing concern continued to print them in various
formats for the next hundred years. T.W.F.
Abe Frajndlich
American, b. Germany, 1946-
Abraham Samuel Frajndlich (born in Frankfurt am Main) translates literary sequences and series into black-and-white and color images. Upon receiving
degrees in English literature from Northwestern University (B.A., 1968; M.A., 1970), he studied with Minor White at a live-in workshop (1970-71) and with Nathan
Lyons (1974-75). Frajndlich's haunting portraits of an aged White, emaciated and mystical, are perhaps his most powerful images.
Since 1970 Frajndlich has worked as a freelance commercial photographer, doing editorial work for several U.S. and European publications,
including Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, ArtNews, London Sunday
Times, and the New York Times Magazine. He has participated in many one-person and group
exhibitions throughout the United States and in Germany, France, and Belgium. His books include
Figments (1975), Cleveland Infra/Red (1979),
Lives I've Never Lived: A Portrait of Minor
White (1983), Masters of Light (1990), and
Gone Beyond Gone (1993). Frajndlich lives in New York. A.W.
Robert Frank
American, b. Switzerland, 1924-
Robert Louis Frank achieved fame for his controversial book,
The Americans, which presented in a series of candid black-and-white photographs his
observations of American life in the late 1950s. Born in Zurich, Frank began his photographic career as an apprentice with Hermann Eidenbenz in Basel (1940-41)
and Michael Wolgensinger in Zurich (1942). After serving in the military in 1944, he worked for Gloria Films in Zurich as a still photographer and in 1946 moved
to Paris to establish himself in commercial work. The following year he immigrated to New York City, where he met and was hired by Alexey Brodovitch, art
director for Harper's Bazaar. Frank photographed for Brodovitch until 1951, when he began to work as a freelance photojournalist, taking assignments from
magazines such as Life, McCall's, and
Fortune. He also began exhibiting his pictures in group shows at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
In 1955 and 1956 Frank received back-to-back fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, which allowed him to travel
across America taking photographs. Eighty-three of the images from his road trip appeared in
The Americans. On his journey Frank took a subjective documentary
approach to record commonplace aspects of American culture: lunch counters, drive-in movies, factories, parades, rodeos, parties. He also captured evidence
of poverty, racism, and alienation, challenging the popular perception of a prosperous, harmonious postwar America. The book was first published in France as
Les Américains (1958) and the following year appeared in the United States, with an introduction by Beat poet and writer Jack Kerouac.
Frank then turned to filmmaking, collaborating with Kerouac and painter Alfred Leslie on
Pull My Daisy (1959). The Sin of
Jesus (1961), O.K. End Here (1963), Me and My
Brother (1968), and Life-Raft Earth (1969) followed. Since 1969 Frank has lived in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, producing photographs
and film with a personal, autobiographical approach. His images have been included in many shows, including a recent one-artist traveling exhibition organized
by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (1994). M.M.
Lee Friedlander
American, 1934-
Lee Friedlander has retained a democratic documentary style throughout his career. Known for giving every disparate element equal status within his frames,
he works with a 35mm camera and black-and-white film. His images of street scenes, urban and suburban buildings, storefront reflections, monuments, desert
landscapes, and social gatherings are understated examinations of American vernacular culture. He uses devices such as multiple reflections, obstructed
vantage points, and overlying shadows to assist his visions, which are characterized by formal coherence, aloof distance, and ironic ambiguity.
Born in Aberdeen, Washington, Friedlander took up photography in 1948. He studied for two years at the Los Angeles Art Center School
(1953-55), leaving to work with Edward Kaminski. Enamored of jazz, Friedlander completed many assignments for album jacket covers for Columbia, rca, and
Atlantic Records before moving to New York City in 1956. His portraits of New Orleans jazz musicians earned him the first of three fellowships from the John
Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (1960, 1962, 1977) and his first one-person show at George Eastman House, Rochester (1966). During that time, he
also rediscovered and salvaged the work of E. J. Bellocq, an early 20th-century New Orleans photographer, and collaborated with Jim Dine to produce a book of
photographs and etchings, Work from the Same
House (1969).
In the 1970s Friedlander began work on a series of overlooked, often abandoned memorials in town squares and city parks across America.
Published as The American Monument (1976), the images reveal a forgotten history, embodied in overgrown, unattended, and eroding icons. Later in the decade he
turned his camera more directly to the beauty of nature, resulting in
Flowers and Trees (1981) and Cherry Blossom Time in
Japan (1986). His extensive series of unconventional and highly tangible nudes culminated in the book
Lee Friedlander Nudes and a one-person show of the subject at the Museum of Modern Art,
New York (1991). In the 1980s, Friedlander went into the workplace of computer operators to document the changes in American labor. Exhibited at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1988, the series reveals a marked shift from the more mechanized, industrial division of labor revealed in his earlier books
Factory Valleys (1982) and Cray at Chippewa
Falls (1987).
Throughout his career, Friedlander has photographed family and friends, publishing several of the images as
Lee Friedlander Portraits (1985). One of
his favorite and most enigmatic models has been his wife, Marie DePaoli, whom he married in 1958. His honors and awards include fellowships from the
National Endowment for the Arts (1972, 1977) and the MacArthur Foundation (1990), the Medal of the City of Paris (1981), and the Edward MacDowell Medal (1986).
He has had three one-person exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1972, 1974, 1991), and a major retrospective organized by the Seattle Art
Museum, with an accompanying publication titled
Like a One-Eyed Cat (1989). Friedlander lives in New York. A.W.
Francis Frith
British, 1822-1898
Francis Frith, best known for his views of Egypt and the Middle East, was born in Chesterfield, Derbyshire. A Quaker, he attended Ackworth School and
Quaker Camp Hill School in Birmingham (about 1828-38), then apprenticed in a Sheffield cutlery house before working in a wholesale grocery business. He began
photographing in 1850 and three years later helped to found the Liverpool Photographic Society.
In 1856 Frith embarked on an extensive tour of Egypt, traveling up the Nile from Cairo to Abu Simbel, and returning in July 1857. Inspired by
this journey's success, that November he traveled again to Egypt and the Holy Land for about six months. During a third trip, in 1859-60, he voyaged up the Nile
to the Sixth Cataract, farther than any photographer before him. These excursions were difficult; besides the desert heat, sand, and flies, the wet collodion
process used by Frith meant traveling with numerous crates filled with cameras, chemicals, and darkroom equipment.
The firm of Frith & Co. was established at Reigate, Surrey, in 1860, becoming one of the most important publishers of European topographic and
architectural views. It continued under the direction of his descendants for well over a century. Previously, Frith's large views had been published in London by
Thomas Agnew & Sons, and James S. Virtue, and his stereographs by Negretti & Zambra. Frith's 1876 catalog included more than 4,000 views, and his works
and travelogue were assembled into several albums, which sold well as souvenirs and to armchair travelers. Many of the photographs certainly were taken by
operators working for him. However, a number of Frith's printsespecially his large glass plate views of Egypt and the Middle Eaststill astonish with their
grandeur of vision. T.W.F.
Jaromír Funke
Czechoslovakian, b. Austria-Hungary, 1896-1945
Jaromír Funke, one of Czechoslovakia's most important modernist photographers during the 1920s-40s, was born in Skute . Although many of his early
images were influenced by the soft-focus pictorial style, from 1918-21 he produced a group of documentary views of the suburbs of Kolín. Following studies in
medicine and law, in 1922 Funke decided to become a freelance photographer. Two years later he joined Josef Sudek and Adolf Schneeberger to found the Czech
Photographic Society ( fs).
By the early 1920s Funke's work reflected a growing interest in modernist ideas, and he began to make clearly focused studies of simple objects. As
the decade progressed, he turned to the production of carefully arranged still lifes emphasizing abstract form and the play of light and shadow. During this time
he also produced several important series of photographs, including two inspired by the images of Eugène Atget:
Reflexy (Reflections, 1929) and as
trvá (Time Persists, 1930-34).
Funke was also influential as a teacher, first at the School of Arts and Crafts, Bratislava (1931-34/35), which followed a Bauhaus-inspired
curriculum, and then at the State School of Graphic Arts, Prague (1935-44). While in Bratislava, he became interested in social documentary photography and joined
the leftist group Sociofoto, which was concerned with recording the living conditions of the poor. Throughout his career Funke published articles and critical
reviews dealing with photography. From 1939-41 he worked with Josef Ehm to edit the magazine
Fotografický obzor (Photographic
Horizon). M.M.
The biograhies were written by Karen L. Churchill, Thomas Weston Fels, Maureen A. McKenna, and April Watson.
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