IT is always remarkable whenever a new collection of the Art of Photography is inaugurated. And when a bank of national stature initiates the program, we nod our heads in cheerful amazement and clap our hands in applause. Seeking help in its venture into a new field, the Exchange National Bank of Chicago turned to Beaumont and Nancy Newhall.
EXCHANGE NATIONAL BANK'S Permanent Collection of Photographs is being created to further photography as a fine art and to focus on its unique role in our technological society. Photography communicates. It helps open man's eye, his mind, and his emotions.
ENGLAND. Born 1800, Melbury, Dorset. When his father died, Henry at six months inherited ancestral estate of Lacock Abbey, near Bath, with cloisters dating from 13th century and a tower which for centuries housed one of the most precious copies of Magna Carta.
BRITAIN. Born in Calcutta, 1815; third and only homely daughter of James Pattle, high official in Bengal Civil Service, known as "the biggest liar in India." Her six sisters, beauties, yet double all their other gifts—wit, generosity, a high hand—ascribed to her.
U.S.A. Born of German immigrants in Hoboken, 1864. Father achieved a fortune modest but sufficient for six children; retired; built brownstone in upper Manhattan and summer home at Lake George. In 1881 took family to Europe for five years.
BRITAIN. Born 1853. Became bookseller in London, championing such outrageous youngsters as George Bernard Shaw and Aubrey Beardsley. First photographs shown were photomicrographs so exquisite they earned him a medal; said, 1886, that he took up photography because of his life-long study of the beautiful.
U.S.A. Born Oshkosh, Wisconsin, 1874. After teaching at state normal school, first encountered social reform movements while attending University of Chicago about 1898. When former principal and friend, Frank A. Manny, became principal of Ethical Culture School in New York, 1901, joined him on faculty.
U.S.A. Born Luxembourg, 1879. Parents came to U. S., in 1881; settled in Michigan. At 9, first attempts at drawing excited such praise that his mother decided he must become an artist. Apprenticed to lithography company, continued in spare time to paint and to photograph.
U.S. A. Born in New York City, 1890, of Bohemian descent. Given first camera at twelve. At Ethical Culture School, studied photography under Lewis Hine, then just beginning to photograph the immigrants arriving at Ellis Island. Went with Hine and group to "291," where Stieglitz was exhibiting work of the Photo-Secession ; found beauty and variety of photographs a revelation; decided, at seventeen, to become a photographer.
U.S.A. Born Highland Park, Illinois, 1886, of New England descent. Frail as a child, made himself into a track star and "little strong man." Father gave him at sixteen a Bull’s Eye Kodak; thenceforth he played hooky to be with his camera in Chicago parks.
U.S.A. Born San Francisco, 1902, of New England descent. Musical gifts apparent when he was twelve. Took first photographs in Yosemite Valley at fourteen. At eighteen began education as a musician — concert pianist. At twenty-five, success of first portfolio, Parmellian Prints of the High Sierras, persuaded him to concentrate on photography as his profession.
U.S.A. Born 1882. While attending University of Washington was inspired to be a photographer by the work of the Photo-Secession, especially that of Gertrude Kasebier. Bought 4x5 camera, 1901 ; while still a student at the University took a job at the Seattle studio of Edward S. Curtis, famous for his documentary interpretation of North American Indians. From him, learned to make platinum prints in both quality and quantity.
U.S.A. Born Philadelphia, 1890. To New York with family, 1897. In high school took architectural drawing and engineering. Then a variety of jobs in layout, lettering, typography, while drawing and painting on the side. 1910: met Alfred Stieglitz and became frequent visitor to “291” during its revolutionary exhibitions of early 20th century artists and sources.
U.S.A. Second son of Edward Weston. Born Los Angeles, 1911. To Mexico with his father, 1925; found photography even more exciting than the pursuit of butterflies, till then his chief delight. Was soon being exhibited together with his proud father, in Mexico and subsequently in California, to which they returned in 1927.
U.S.A. Born Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1908. Began photographing very young, assisted by his grandfather whose hobby was photography; then stopped and set it aside while majoring in science, especially botany, at University of Minnesota.
U.S.A. Born Winnetka, Illinois, 1901. Summers spent on island in Penobscot Bay, Maine, where he became fascinated in photographing birds and Maine images generally. Harvard, 1924; M.D., Harvard Medical School, 1929. Taught biochemistry and bacteriology at Harvard from 1930 to 1939, when, inspired by Ansel Adams to make his photographs beautiful, and exhibited by Alfred Stieglitz at An American Place, he quit science and went into photography full time.
CANADA. Born Mardin, Armenia-in-Turkey, 1908. His family, persecuted by Turks, fled to Syria in 1922. At age of 16, immigrated to Canada; joined his uncle, George Nakash, a photographer in Sherbrooke, Province of Quebec. Became naturalized British subject.
U.S.A. Born California, 1900, of New England descent, maiden name being Barbara Brooks Johnson. Graduated in first class, 1923, at UCLA. Taught art at UCLA; painted, became interested in the dance. Married the photographer and publisher Willard D. Morgan, and with him made many journeys into the Southwest, especially to Indian country—the Navahos, Zuni, and Hopi.
U.S.A. Born Hoboken, New Jersey, 1895. Started to become teacher but found herself becoming a photographer instead. Studied under Clarence White at Columbia University; worked for Arnold Genthe, who gave her her first camera. In San Francisco, lost all her money; got a job in a camera store, and liked the people she met across the counter so much she decided to stay.
U.S.A. Born St. Louis, Missouri, 1903. Educated at Phillips Academy, Andover, at Williams College, and in Paris. Began, 1930, series of photographs of Victorian and indigenous architecture, largely in New England: these exhibited at Museum of Modern Art, 1934.
U.S.A. Born New York City. Excited by photographs of Henri Cartier-Bresson; continued studying photography with Walker Evans, 1938-39. Art studies at Art Students League, 1956-57. Began photographing with miniature camera in the slums of New York in the late 30s, often also making movies with the writer James Agee of the extraordinary and moving events which spontaneously occur among such a mixture of peoples.
U.S.A. Born Wichita, Kansas, 1918. News photographer at fifteen; 1936, photographic scholarship to Notre Dame University; left early in 1937. Photographer for Newsweek, 1937-38. Joined Black Star Agency, did first stories for American Magazine, Colliers, Harpers Bazaar, and Life, 1939-41.
ENGLAND. Born London, 1905; essentially self-taught in photography; some early instruction in Swiss portrait studio. Worked 1929-30, Paris studio of photographer Man Ray; briefly operated portrait studio in Paris. Influenced by work of Atget, Brassai, Cartier-Bresson; turned to reportage while retaining interest in Surrealist theories.
U.S.A. Born Chicago, 1902. To California at age of five. Pursued musical education in Berlin, Milan and Paris after having attended Columbia University and the University of West Virginia. In Europe became interested in the visual arts, particularly photography.
FRANCE. Born near Paris, 1896. As a boy six years old, began to photograph with a view camera—he had to stand on a stool to view the groundglass. He was disappointed that he could not take action photographs with it of "the games my big brother and his friends played ... How could one retain our bicycle races?"
U.S.A. Born Budapest, 1894, son of a bookseller. Liked exploring new places and seeing different people; as schoolboy, became an accomplished truant, visiting his friends—art students, peasants and gypsies. In 1912 took office job with the stock exchange; with first savings bought small plate camera and, at sixteen, began to photograph little incidents significant of some human situation.
FRANCE. Born Brassov, Transylvania, 1899. To Paris, aged four, with his father, a professor of French literature; lived for one year the enchanted life of little Parisians. After studying the arts in Budapest and in Berlin, Brassai in 1924, returned to Paris.
FRANCE. Born Gentilly (Seine), France, 1912, Studied to be a lithographer at the Ecole Estienne (the French government printer’s school), Paris. 1926. Learned photography while employed as graphic specialist in the advertising department of a pharmaceutical house.
FRANCE. Born Chanteloup, 1908. Had a passion for painting; studied for two years with André Lhôte. Began making amusing holiday snapshots with Box Brownie, then became excited by the cinema and the photographs of Man Ray and Atget. To Africa, 1931; lived in native villages.
BORN Zurich, Switzerland, 1916. Wanted to be a painter; parental opposition forced him to attend the Kunstgewerbeschule (graphic arts) where he studied photography under Hans Finster and achieved a mastery of light and form, 1932-36. Specialized in still life.
BORN Vienna, 1921. Pursued varied studies in medicine, drama, and the arts. Studied photography at Graphische Lehrund Versuchsanstalt, Vienna; left without completing program. Studied independently, early interest in European and American pictorialists.
FRANCE. Joined Magnum, 1953. Previously an industrial engineer in Lyons. In London, 1954, photographed Winston Churchill at Conservative Party Conference, dock strike, hydrogen bomb protest. Trips to Dalmatia and Turkey, 1955. Worked with Mike Todd on Around the World in 80 Days, 1956, then drove overland, Paris to Calcutta, stopping off for assignments in Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan.
SWITZERLAND. Studied photography at Kunstgewerbeschule; fellowship in photography from Swiss Government. Assistant cameraman, Walt Disney film on Switzerland. Associate photographer, Magnum, 1956; member, 1959. Photojournalistic assignments in Europe, Middle East, Latin America.
U.S.A. Born 1935. Studied: Marquette University; privately with W. Eugene Smith and Roy Stryker. Turned photographer after serving as Associate Editor of Jubilee from 1956-59. As a free-lancer he worked for leading magazines in Europe and America.
U.S.A. Born South Carolina of Greek parentage. At nineteen was hired as official photographer of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Subsequently freelanced in New York; became member of Magnum. Many major assignments for magazines. For last several years has been living in Athens and working on a book on Greece.
U.S.A. Joined Magnum in 1953. After studying philology at the University of Berlin, she began her professional career in Vienna as a writer for periodicals and Austrian radio. Traveled widely in the Middle East, North and South Africa, Europe (including the Balkans), U.S.A. and Mexico.
U.S.A. Born Chicago, 1933. Rochester Institute of Technology, 1954. Yale University, 1954. U.S. Army 1955-57. Member of Magnum since 1958. Guggenheim Fellowship, 1961, for study of youth in America. Photographic essays for Life, Esquire, Vogue, etc.
U.S.A. Born New Orleans, 1929. At University of Colorado majored in political science. Began working in photography about 1951, soon specializing in color. As a free-lancer, did "almost every stock picture there is—landscapes, sports, babies, pinups, magazine covers, etc."
U.S.A. Born Detroit, Michigan in 1913. Started photographing in 1927. Trained as sociologist at the University of Michigan and Wayne State University. Experimental and documentary photography in Detroit in the 30s. Scholarship 1937 to the New Bauhaus.
U.S.A. Born New York City, 1903. Studied College of City of New York; taught English in N.Y.C. public schools, 1926-1949. Began photographing, 1932; first alone, then with several younger photographers whom he trained. Together produced New York documentary studies, including "Dead End: The Bowery," "Harlem Document," "Park Avenue: A Study by Contrasts," and "Portrait of a Tenement."
U.S.A. Born Detroit, Michigan, 1912; studied engineering, Michigan State, two years. Began photographing, 1938; worked as processor, photo lab, General Motors, 1944-45. Strongly impressed by Ansel Adams, whose lectures he attended, 1941, and by life and work of Alfred Stieglitz.
U.S.A. Born Belgium, 1939. Grew up during difficult war years. Convent and graphic arts training. Decided to come to America. On boat, met Brett Weston, who recommended her to Ansel Adams as assistant in the production of Portfolio IV.
U.S.A. Born Boston, 1925. Studied at School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; workshops with Stephan Trefonides, Paul Caponigro, Ansel Adams, and Minor White. Began working with Polaroid Corporation; became famous for her exquisite and subtle effects in Polacolor, as well as for her rich and tapestry-like compositions in black-and-white.
U.S.A. Born Irvington, New Jersey, 1924. Started photographing with a Brownie. During high school worked in a photography studio. Drafted, 1943; served 3 years in Air Force in U.S. and Asia. To Chicago; studied at Institute of Design under first Arthur Siegel and then Harry Callahan.
U.S.A. Born Boston, Massachusetts, 1932. In public high school, discovered interests in photography and in music. One year at College of Music, Boston University, 1950. Apprentice to commercial photographer, 1952. Drafted into U.S. Army as photographer; stationed in San Francisco, met former students of Ansel Adams and Minor White.
THE HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY FROM 1839 TO THE PRESENT DAY. Beaumont Newhall. The Museum of Modern Art and George Eastman House, 1964. MASTERS OF PHOTOGRAPHY. Beaumont and Nancy Newhall. George Braziller, Inc., 1958. A CONCISE HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY.