Appreciations - John Szarkowski

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Appreciations - John Szarkowski
By VERLYN KLINKENBORG
Published: July 10, 2007

It’s worth remembering how much Wisconsin there was in the voice of John Szarkowski, who died on Saturday, July 7, at age 81. His reputation would almost make you doubt what you were hearing. He was, after all, the curator of photography at the Museum of Modern Art for 29 years, beginning in 1962. The exhibitions he mounted and the books he wrote quite simply gave documentary photography a place in the world of art. And yet there was that broad Wisconsin in his speech, reminding his auditors that if they could hear the curatorial pulpit in his words they could also hear the sound of a very different place.

I’m struck now by the essential modesty of that other place — the common-sensical view Mr. Szarkowski took of his curatorial work and his work as a photographer. What comes to mind, especially, is one of his photographs called “Mr. Anderson and Son, Near Sandstone, Minnesota, 1957.” It is the picture of a farmer and his son standing against the backdrop of an empty wooden corn crib. There is in both faces a wry, inquisitive look, almost humorous in the father’s face, more trusting in the son’s. The picture embodies the aesthetic Mr. Szarkowski found in the photographers he championed — the aesthetic of merely noticing.

Mr. Szarkowski never pretended that photography changed because of his attention. He pretended that he was just paying attention to what should have been obvious to almost anyone. What he demonstrated, in fact, was the very thing that good curators are able to do. He remained himself, and yet he was changed by what he saw and showed us how to be changed, too.

End

Note from Edward Carter:
Prior to the official opening of the Edward Carter Gallery at 560 Broadway in Manhattan's SoHo in 1999, I held a private viewing for Mr. Szarkowski and the members of AIPAD who were meeting in New York at the time. The centerpiece of the exhibition was Ansel Adams' Parmelian Prints of the High Sierras. This was Ansels’ first and most important portfolio. The negatives, all glass plates save one, were made between 1921-1927. All of the prints were made by the artist in 1927, when he was but twenty-five years old.

Of course, Mr. Szarkowski had seen prints from this portfolio dozens of times but he was gracious enough to comment that the layout and lighting in my gallery enabled him to see the prints as never before.

"Remarkable," he said; "remarkable!"

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