Artist
John Szarkowski
Ashland 1925 — 2007 Pittsfield, Massachusetts
John Szarkowski’s photographic work depicts the lived landscape, both urban and rural, imparting a sense of history and place. But perhaps his most valuable contribution to the field was as curator. Hired by Edward Steichen as photography curator at the Museum of Modern Art in 1962, Szarkowski’s exhibitions, acquisitions, and publications introduced audiences to photography as art, broadening the definition to include nineteenth-century processes, Civil War images, documentaries, and others. His dedication to the possibilities of the medium was unwavering, believing that “creative photography…belongs in our museums to elevate not itself, but those who look at it.”