[Note: The Online Photographer's M.C., majordomo, and Chief Bottlewasher, Mike J., just had his eye operated on and is recuperating. Big rule during recovery: no screens, no reading, lie flat and stare at the ceiling. He got an Echo and is listening to Audible books! Meanwhile, for your amusement and reflection, a few bon mots from other authors. One will be published every day while Mike's away.]
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"After a detour through Vermont to view the autumn color, I arrived in New York. I had arranged to meet John Szarkowski, the recently appointed Director of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art. He was chosen by Edward Steichen the previous year as his successor, and for the next twenty-nine years was director of the most influential department of photography in the world. It was evident early in his new position that he would take the department built on the foundation of Newhall and Steichen in a new direction. Szarkowski seized the opportunity to reflect the time of a youthful vitality in politics, music, science and the arts. As a photographer, he admitted to the early influences of Walker Evans and Edward Weston, but his position as director demanded a broader view. He championed the work of Diane Arbus, Garry Winogrand, and Lee Friedlander, presenting their work in the New Documents exhibition of 1967. Their works marked a new direction in photography, as did the William Eggleston exhibition in 1976—a display of saturated color photographs depicting signs, cars, and people. Both exhibitions were met with skepticism by critics, only natural for work deviating from the entrenched standards of acceptance. Undeniably, with twenty-nine rears as director, the production of one hundred and sixty exhibitions, and his insightful writings, John Szarkowski played a major role in securing photography as a fine art. His influence exists in photographic work being produced today, a half-century after he assumed his position as director."
—Photographer Merg Ross, from "The 1960s" in his monograph Beyond Casual Vision
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