George Eastman House
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
George Eastman House in Rochester, New York
Location:	900 East Avenue, Rochester, New York, USA
Built:	1905
Architect:	J. Foster Warner
Architectural style:	Georgian
Governing body:	George Eastman House Museum of Photography
NRHP Reference#:	66000529
Significant dates
Added to NRHP:	November 13, 1966[1]
Designated NHL:	November 13, 1966[2]

The George Eastman House is the world's oldest museum dedicated to photography ^[3][4] and one of the world's oldest film archives, opened to the public in 1949 in Rochester, New York, USA. World-renowned for its photograph and motion picture archives, the museum is also a leader in film preservation and photograph conservation, educating archivists and conservators from around the world. Home to the Dryden Theatre, a 535-seat repertory theater, the museum is located in and around the house built by George Eastman, the founder of Eastman Kodak Company. The house was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1966.

History[link]

The estate of George Eastman, including his house, was bequeathed upon his death to the University of Rochester. University presidents (first Benjamin Rush Rhees, then Alan Valentine) occupied the house for ten years.^[5] After World War II, the university transferred the property to a board of trustees.^[3]

The George Eastman House Museum of Photography was chartered in 1947.^[6] Today, the museum's full name is the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film. From the outset, the museum's mission has been to collect, preserve, and present the history of photography and film. The museum opened its doors on November 9, 1949, displaying its core collections in the former public rooms of Eastman's house. The museum's original collections — including the Medicus collection of Civil War photographs by Alexander Gardner, Eastman Kodak Company's historical collection, and the massive Gabriel Cromer collection from France — attracted significant additions over the next 40 years. Entire archives, corporate collections, and artists' lifetime portfolios have been donated to the Eastman House, as well as an assemblage of rare motion pictures and ephemera.

By 1984, the museum's holdings were considered by many to be among the world's finest. However, with the collections growing at a rapid pace, the museum increasingly suffered from its own success. With an increasing number of materials to store, protect, and study, additional space became critical. A new facility opened to the public in January 1989.^[7]

Interior

In 1996, the museum opened the Louis B. Mayer Conservation Center in nearby Chili, New York. One of only four film conservation centers in the United States (as of March 2006), the facility houses the museum's rare 35 mm prints made on cellulose nitrate. That same year, the Eastman House launched the first school of film preservation in the United States to teach restoration, preservation, and archiving of motion pictures. The L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation is supported by a grant from The Louis B. Mayer Foundation.

In 1999, George Eastman House launched the Mellon Advanced Residency Program in Photograph Conservation, made possible with grant support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The program trains top photograph archivists and conservators from around the world.

George Eastman House arranged groundbreaking exhibitions such as New Topographics.

George Eastman House is headed by a board of trustees, with Thomas H. Jackson being the chair. The board appoints the director of George Eastman House, currently Anthony Bannon.

Collections[link]

The museum's permanent collection comprises more than 400,000 photographs and negatives dating from the invention of photography to the present day; 23,000 films and several million film stills; 43,000 publications; and more than 25,000 pieces of technology.

Photography collection[link]

The photography collection embraces numerous landmark processes, objects of great rarity, and monuments of art history that trace the evolution of the medium as a technology, as a means of scientific and historical documentation, and as one of the most potent and accessible means of personal expression of the modern era. More than 14,000 photographers are represented in the collection, including virtually all the major figures in the history of the medium. The collection includes original vintage works produced by nearly every process and printing medium employed. Notable holdings include:

• A major collection of Ansel Adams’ early and vintage prints
• A major collection of nineteenth-century photographs of the American West
• A major collection of early French photography
• One of the largest collections of daguerreotypes in the world

The museum is also an important repository of the work of Stieglitz and Edward Steichen.

Virtually every major photographer who has emerged in the past 50 years is represented, although the changing realities of the photographic marketplace dictate a greater selectivity in the acquisition of works than ever before. Notable contemporary photographers include Steve McCurry, Robert Frank, Ed Kashi,^[9] James Nachtwey, Sebastião Salgado, Manuel Rivera-Ortiz^[10] or Larry Towell.^[11]

Motion picture collection[link]

The motion picture collection is one of the major moving image archives in the United States. It was established in 1949 by the first curator of film, James Card (1915-2000) who helped to build George Eastman House as a leading force in the field with holdings of over 25,000 titles and a collection of stills, posters and papers with over 3 million artifacts.

George Eastman House Honors Award[link]

In 2009, the George Eastman House Honors Award was established, which is given to artists whose lifetime contribution embodies the traditions and values championed by the international museum.

Its historically first recipient became a multi-winner of Academy Awards and Golden Globes, Jessica Lange.^[12]

The Eastman House[link]

George Eastman (1854–1932) built his home at 900 East Avenue between 1902 and 1905. He created a unique urban estate complete with 10.5 acres (42,000 m²) of working farm land, formal gardens, greenhouses, stables, barns, pastures, and a 35,000-square-foot (3,300 m²), 50-room Colonial Revival mansion with a fireproof structure made of reinforced concrete.

Eastman's house presented a classical facade of decorative craftsmanship. Beneath this exterior were such modern conveniences as an electrical generator, an internal telephone system with 21 stations, a built-in vacuum cleaning system, a central clock network, an elevator, and a great pipe organ, which made the home itself an instrument, a center of the city's rich musical life from 1905 until Eastman's death in 1932.

The house was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1966.^[2][13]

References[link]

External links[link]

Official site[link]

• Official Site: George Eastman House
• Eastman House on Flickr

Other[link]

• George Eastman House sample page in coffee-table book

Guides[link]

• Animation World writeup
• RocWiki article on the George Eastman House

Virtual tour[link]

• Virtual Tour

Coordinates: 43°09′08″N 77°34′49″W / 43.152147°N 77.580278°W / 43.152147; -77.580278

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George Eastman
Born	(1854-07-12)July 12, 1854 Waterville, New York, U.S.
Died	March 14, 1932(1932-03-14) (aged 77) Rochester, New York, U.S.
Resting place	Ashes buried at Kodak Park
Nationality	American
Occupation	Businessman, inventor, philanthropist
Known for	Photography pioneer, Founder of Eastman Kodak
Net worth	USD $95 million at the time of his death (approximately 1/611th of US GNP)[1]
Parents	George Eastman (1815–1862) and Maria Kilbourn (1821–1907)

George Eastman (July 12, 1854 – March 14, 1932) was an American innovator and entrepreneur who founded the Eastman Kodak Company and invented roll film, helping to bring photography to the mainstream. Roll film was also the basis for the invention of motion picture film in 1888 by the world's first filmmakers Eadward Muybridge and Louis Le Prince, and a few years later by their followers Léon Bouly, Thomas Edison, the Lumière Brothers and Georges Méliès.

He was a major philanthropist, establishing the Eastman School of Music, and schools of dentistry and medicine at the University of Rochester; contributing to the construction of MIT's second campus on the Charles River; and donating to Tuskegee and Hampton universities. In addition, he provided funds for clinics in London and other European cities to serve low-income residents.

The George Eastman House, now operated as the International Museum of Photography and Film, has been designated a National Historic Landmark.

Early life[link]

U.S. patent no. 388,850, issued to George Eastman, September 4, 1888

Eastman was born in Waterville, New York to George Washington Eastman and Maria Eastman (née Kilbourn), the youngest child, at the 10-acre farm which his parents bought in 1849. He had two older sisters, Ellen Maria and Katie.^[2] He was largely self-educated, although he attended a private school in Rochester after the age of eight.^[3] His father had started a business school, the Eastman Commercial College in the early 1840s in Rochester, New York, described as one of the first "boomtowns" in the United States, with a rapid growth in industry.^[4] As his father's health started deteriorating, the family gave up the farm and moved to Rochester in 1860.^[3] His father died of a brain disorder in May 1862. To survive and afford George's schooling, his mother took in boarders.^[3] Her second daughter Katie had contracted polio when young and died in late 1870. The young Eastman left school early and started working.

In 1884, Eastman patented the first film in roll form to prove practicable; he had been tinkering at home to develop it. In 1888 he perfected the Kodak camera, the first camera designed specifically for roll film. In 1892, he established the Eastman Kodak Company, in Rochester, New York. It was one of the first firms to mass-produce standardized photography equipment. The company also manufactured the flexible transparent film, devised by Eastman in 1889, which proved vital to the subsequent development of the motion picture industry.

He started his philanthropy early, sharing the income from his business to establish educational and health institutions. Notable among his contributions were a $625,000 gift in 1901 to the Mechanics Institute, now Rochester Institute of Technology; and a major gift in the early 1900s to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which enabled the construction of buildings on its second campus by the Charles River.^[5] It opened this campus in 1916.^[6]

Later years[link]

George Eastman, 1917

Eastman was associated with Kodak company in an administrative and an executive capacity until his death; he contributed much to the development of its notable research facilities. In 1911 he founded the Eastman Trust and Savings Bank. While discouraging the formation of unions at his manufacturing plant, he established paternal systems of support for his employees.

He was one of the outstanding philanthropists of his time, donating more than $100 million to various projects in Rochester; Cambridge, Massachusetts; at two historically black colleges in the South; and in several European cities.^[5] In 1918, he endowed the establishment of the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester, and in 1921 a school of medicine and dentistry there.

In 1925, Eastman gave up his daily management of Kodak to become treasurer. He concentrated on philanthropic activities, to which he had already donated substantial sums. For example, he donated funds to establish the Eastman Dental Dispensary in 1916. He was one of the major philanthropists of his time, ranking only slightly behind Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and a few others, but did not seek publicity for his activities. He concentrated on institution-building and causes that could help people's health. From 1926until his death, Eastman donated $ 22.050Bold text per year to the American Eugenics Society.

In his final two years, Eastman was in intense pain, caused by a degenerative disorder affecting his spine. He had trouble standing and his walking became a slow shuffle. Today it might be diagnosed as lumbar spinal stenosis, a narrowing of the spinal canal caused by calcification in the vertebrae. Eastman grew depressed, as he had seen his mother spend the last two years of her life in a wheelchair from the same condition. On March 14, 1932, Eastman died by suicide with a single gunshot to the heart, leaving a note which read, "To my friends: my work is done. Why wait?"^[7]

His funeral was held at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Rochester; he was buried on the grounds of the company he founded at Kodak Park in Rochester, New York.

Legacy[link]

A First Day Cover Honoring George Eastman 1954.

During his lifetime Eastman donated $100 million to various organizations but most of the money went to the University of Rochester and to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (under the alias "Mr. Smith").^[8] The Rochester Institute of Technology has a building dedicated to Eastman, in recognition of his support and substantial donations. In recognition of his donation to MIT, the university installed a plaque of Eastman (students rub the nose on the plaque for good luck.) Eastman also made substantial gifts to the Tuskegee Institute and the Hampton Institute. Upon his death, his entire estate went to the University of Rochester, where his name can be found on the Eastman Quadrangle of the River Campus. The auditorium at Mississippi State Universities Dave C. Swalm School of Chemical Engineering is named for Eastman in recognition of his inspiration to Swalm.

His former home at 900 East Avenue in Rochester, New York was opened as the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film in 1949. It has been designated a National Historic Landmark. In 1954, the 100th anniversary of his birth, Eastman was honored with a postage stamp from the United States Post Office. In the fall of 2009, a statue of Eastman was erected on the Eastman Quad of the University of Rochester.

In 1915, Eastman founded a bureau of municipal research in Rochester "to get things done for the community" and to serve as an "independent, non-partisan agency for keeping citizens informed." Called the Center for Governmental Research, the agency continues to carry out that mission.^[9]

Eastman had a very astute business sense. He focused his company on making film when competition heated up in the camera industry. By providing quality and affordable film to every camera manufacturer, Kodak managed to turn its competitors into de facto business partners.

In 1926, George Eastman was approached by Lord Riddell, the Chairman of Royal Free Hospital, to fund a dental clinic in London. He agreed to give £200,000, which was matched by £50,000 each from Lord Riddell and Sir Albert Levy, the Royal Free's honorary treasurer.^[10] The Eastman Dental Clinic was opened on November 20, 1931, by the American Ambassador in the presence of Neville Chamberlain. The building, which resembled the Rochester Dispensary, was totally integrated into the Royal Free Hospital and included three wards for oral, otolaryngology and cleft lip and palate surgery. It was dedicated to providing dental care for children from the poor districts of central London.^[11] In a similar manner, Eastman went on to establish dental clinics in Rome, Paris, Brussels and Stockholm.^[12]

Patents[link]

• U.S. Patent 226,503 "Method and Apparatus for Coating Plates", filed September 1879, issued April 1880
• U.S. Patent 306,470 "Photographic Film", filed May 10, 1884, issued October 14, 1884
• U.S. Patent 306,594 "Photographic Film", filed March 7, 1884, issued October 14, 1884
• U.S. Patent 317,049 (with William H. Walker) "Roll Holder for Photographic Films", filed August 1884, issued May 1885
• U.S. Patent 388,850 "Camera", filed March, 1888, issued September, 1888
• Eastman licensed, then purchased U.S. Patent 248,179 "Photographic Apparatus" (roll film holder), filed June 21, 1881, issued October 11, 1881 to David H. Houston.

See also[link]

Biography portal

• Eastmaninstitutet
• George Eastman House
• UCL Eastman Dental Institute

Further reading[link]

• Carl W. Ackerman, George Eastman: Founder of Kodak and the Photography Business (1930), Beard Books, ISBN 1-893122-99-9
• Elizabeth Brayer, George Eastman: A Biography (1996), Johns Hopkins University Press, ISBN 0-8018-5263-3, University of Rochester Press 2006 reprint: ISBN 1-58046-247-2

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikisource has the text of a 1922 Encyclopædia Britannica article about George Eastman.

• George Eastman archive at the University of Rochester
• George Eastman at Find a Grave
• George Eastman: His Life, Legacy, and Estate, George Eastman House
• The George Eastman House
• UCL Eastman Dental Institute, London, UK
• Eastman Institute for Oral Health, University of Rochester, NY

Priscilla Rattazzi (born 1956) is an Italian-born photographer based in New York City who has worked primarily as a magazine photographer and has authored several photography books.^[1]

Life and career[link]

Priscilla Rattazzi was born in Rome in 1956, the youngest child of Susanna Agnelli and Urbano dei conti Rattazzi. She is the niece of Gianni Agnelli, who was chairman of Fiat. At the age of 16, she went to Wales as a student at Atlantic College, and subsequently went to the United States, where she studied photography at Sarah Lawrence College, graduating in 1977. She has remained in New York City since her student days.^[2][3]

As a model she was featured in Richard Avedon’s “Avedon: Photographs 1947-1977” along with models Dovima, Dorian Leigh, and Suzy Parker.^[3]

She was an apprentice to Japanese fashion photographer Hiro. Her work has been featured in magazines including Good Housekeeping, Redbook, Seventeen, New York Magazine, Self, and Italian Vogue.^[3]

Rattazzi has been married three times, first to Alex Ponti (son of Carlo Ponti), later to German investment banker Claus Moehlmann, and currently to Chris Whittle, an entrepreneur who is the founder and CEO of Edison Schools. She is the mother of three children.^[3] She is the president of the US Foundation for Atlantic College.

Books[link]

• Priscilla’s first book was printed privately in 1982. Entitled Una Famiglia, it consists of old family portraits and pictures of various relatives.^[3]

• Best Friends was Priscilla’s second book. It featured an introduction by Gianni Agnelli.^[4] The book is composed of portraits of dogs and their owners including Glenn Close, Mary Wells, and Diane Von Furstenberg. As a result of the book's success Priscilla was featured in Time’s People section.^[5]

• Children features over 100 photographs of childhood and was published by Rizzoli in 1992. Many of the photographs include images of her eldest son, Maxi. The text was written by her sister, who is a child therapist.^[6]

• Georgica Pond was published by Callaway Editions in September 2000. It focused on the area in East Hampton, New York, where she and her husband Chris Whittle own an estate called Briar Patch. A portion of the proceeds from sales of Georgica Pond were donated to the South Fork-Shelter Island chapter of the Nature Conservancy.^[7]

References[link]

External links[link]

• http://www.priscillarattazzi.com
• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/priscilla-rattazzi
• Collection of Articles on Priscilla Rattazzi

This article may contain wording that merely promotes the subject without imparting verifiable information. Please remove or replace such wording, unless you can cite independent sources that support the characterization. (May 2011)

Anthony Bannon
Dr. Anthony Bannon
Born	December 6, 1943 Hanover, N.H.
Residence	U.S.
Nationality	American
Fields	Arts
Institutions	George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film
Alma mater	St. Bonaventure University State University of New York at Buffalo

Anthony Bannon (born December 6, 1943) is the seventh director of George Eastman House, International Museum of Photography & Film, located in Rochester, N.Y., and has served in that position longer than any other director in the museum’s history.^[1][2] He has held that position since 1996, previously serving as director of the Burchfield-Penney Arts Center^[3] and director of Cultural Affairs on the campus of the State University of New York at Buffalo, both located in Buffalo, N.Y..

George Eastman House is the world’s oldest museum of photography and largest museum of photography and film.^[4] During Bannon’s tenure the museum launched three internationally renowned graduate and post-graduate schools of film and photograph preservation and conservation.^[5]

Dr. Bannon has lectured at museums, colleges, and festivals worldwide. He currently serves as chairman of the Lucie Awards/International Photography Awards^[6] and was awarded the Golden Career Award in 2007 by the FOTOfusion Festival of Photography & Digital Imaging for his “far-reaching leadership and scholarship in the cultural community.”

Biography[link]

Education[link]

Dr. Bannon studied biology at St. Bonaventure University, earning a bachelor’s degree in 1964. He earned a master’s degree in English, with a concentration in criticism and film in the Center for Media Study, from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1976. Bannon earned his Ph.D. in 1994 from the State University of New York at Buffalo from the English Department, with a concentration in Culture Studies. His thesis was titled Robert Longo: A Practice of Art.^[7]

Director of George Eastman House[link]

George Eastman House International Museum of Photography & Film combines the world’s leading collections of photography and film with the stately pleasures of the Colonial Revival mansion and gardens that Kodak founder George Eastman called home from 1905 to 1932. Eastman is heralded as the father of popular photography and motion picture film.^[2]

George Eastman House, which opened to the public as a museum in 1949, has unparalleled collections — 400,000 photographs by 9,000 photographers, from the earliest daguerreotypes to the most recent digital images; 20,000 items of camera technology; 30,000 motion picture titles and 3.5 million publicity stills and posters; and one of the world’s most comprehensive libraries of photographic books, manuscripts, and journals.^[2] While preserving one of the richest historical collections, Eastman House also has as an aggressive acquisition program of contemporary works.

In modern archives and galleries adjacent to the National Historic Landmark home and gardens, the museum offers world-leading programs in photograph and film preservation. These include the L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation, which offers a one-year certificate program as well as master’s degree in conjunction with the University of Rochester;^[8] a master’s degree in Photograph Preservation and Collections Management with Toronto’s Ryerson University;^[9] and a fellowship through the Advanced Residency Program in Photograph Conservation in collaboration with Image Permanence Institute of Rochester Institute of Technology.^[10]

In 2009 the Eastman House will launch the Center for the Legacy of Photography as well as a photograph conservation wiki.^[11]

Due to its leading preservation efforts, filmmakers who deposit their films at Eastman House include Martin Scorsese (a personal collection of 8,000 titles), Spike Lee, and Ken Burns.^[12]

Comments about George Eastman House during Bannon’s tenure:

“The nation’s leading photography museum.” —William Bulkeley, The Wall Street Journal

“George Eastman House is at the forefront of what I consider to be one of the most important tasks of our time — the preservation of film as part of our national heritage.” — Martin Scorsese, filmmaker

“If you have never seen a classic photograph in the raw, you are missing a wonderful experience . . . the jaw-dropping, pulse-racing, imagination-capturing capital of it all is the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York.” — John Owens, editor in chief, Popular Photography

“A national treasure . . . a first-rate modern museum that no lover of photography will want to miss.” — Susan Adams, senior editor, Forbes

“George Eastman House is among the holy places of cinema, where films are loved and preserved.” — Roger Ebert, film critic

Early career[link]

Bannon began his career as a journalist, working from 1969 to 1985 for The Buffalo News, a metropolitan daily with a peak circulation of more than 400,000. He initially served as a theater and dance critic, and was a critic fellow at the Eugene O'Neill Memorial Theater Foundation and the American Dance Congress in 1969. Bannon later served as the newspaper’s film, video, and architecture critic, finally concentrating on the fine and camera arts from 1977 through 1985. When a Sunday edition was initiated in 1977, he was appointed its art section editor. Reflecting Buffalo’s long-standing tradition of civic commitment to culture, the News encouraged Bannon to teach, to make films, to serve as a dramaturg for theater productions, and to organize exhibitions in the visual arts.

For the next decade, from 1985 to 1996, Bannon was with the State University of New York College at Buffalo. He served as director of the Burchfield-Penney Art Center, which is dedicated to the work and archives of Charles Burchfield (1893–1967), an American watercolorist. The center holds the largest collection of Burchfield works, journals and ephemera. It also serves as a regional museum, collecting art, craft and design by artists who have lived in Western New York State, including the largest collection of Roycroft objects from the Arts and Crafts Movement. The center is the repository of the Charles Rand Penney Collections. As a presenting organization, the Burchfield-Penney programs in all the visual arts, including architecture, design, film, video, craft and folk art, as well as literary arts and music.

Bannon additionally held the position of the college’s assistant vice president and director for cultural affairs form 1994 to 1996. The Office of Cultural Affairs developed and advanced faculty, student and staff talent by locating, encouraging, assisting and presenting examples of intellectual and creative excellence from the College community. The objective of the office, established by Bannon, was to develop and sponsor collaborations across disciplines, often with organizations and individuals off campus, and to develop associations for the Foreign Exchange Program (particularly with the Latvian Academy of Fine Art and the Fachhochschule in Dortmund, Germany). The office also organized the campus lecture series, the college Summer School in the Arts at ArtPark, the college’s 125th Anniversary Celebration and the collaborations of the college Centers of Excellence. Bannon’s teaching experience has included adjunct positions at Sierra Nevada College in Nevada; State University of New York College at Buffalo; Empire State College in Buffalo; and Rochester Institute of Technology.

Personal[link]

Bannon is married to Elizabeth Stewart, an addiction specialist who works as a psychologist for the New York State Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities. His son Nick is an administrator for the Texas School for the Deaf in Austin, and his son Brendan is a photographer working in Africa.

Bannon was born in Hanover, New Hampshire, where his father, Dr. Robert Bannon, was a professor of physiological optics and a member of the Dartmouth Eye Institute, and his mother, Frances, was a nurse at Hitchcock Memorial Hospital.

Awards and Grants[link]

CEO of the Year, Public Relations Society of America, Rochester Chapter, 2008^[13]

Golden Career Award, FOTOfusion Festival of Photography & Digital Imaging, 2007^[14]

University Arts Award, St. Bonaventure University, 2002

Outstanding Art Administrator of the Year, The Buffalo Partnership (Chamber of Commerce) and the Arts Council of Buffalo & Erie County, 1995^[15]

Gallaudet College Award for Excellence in Writing About Deafness, 1985

Merit Award For The Photo-Pictorialists of Buffalo American Photographic Historical Society, 1982 Videospace Experiment Grant, With Ed Emshwiller and Bob O. Lehmann A New York State Arts Council grant, administered by Media Study/Buffalo and WNED-Public Television, to make “Positive/Negative Electronic Faces” (With Emshwiller) and “UB/More To Come” (With Lehmann), 1973–74

Bunis Award for Best Article in Western New York State Magazine, 1972

American Association of Commerce Publications Best Feature Story, 1970

Publications[link]

Hiroshi Watanabe: Findings, 2007 Critical Mass/Photolucida^[16]

Warheads: Photographs by Diane Bush, 2006 KuDaEditions, USA ^[17]

Picturing Eden, Introduction, 2005 Steidl, Germany^[18] Steve McCurry (Phaidon 55s), 2005 Phaidon Press, London, United Kingdom ^[18]

Ansel Adams, 2003 Fundación Pedro Barrié de al Maza, A Coruña, Spain ^[19]

Arcadia Revisited: Photographs by John Pfahl, 1988, with Estelle Jussim University of New Mexico Press^[20]

Grace Woodworth: Photographer Outside the Common Lines, 1984, with Mary Stanley Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center, Auburn, New York^[21]

The Taking of Niagara: A History of the Falls in Photography, 1982 Media Study/Buffalo, New York^[22]

The Photo-Pictorialists of Buffalo, 1981 Media Study/Buffalo with the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York ^[23]

References[link]

Steve McCurry
Steve McCurry on "Celebrating Multiculturalism Through Photography", Central Market Annex gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Born	Steve McCurry (1950-04-23) April 23, 1950 (age 62) Darby, Pennsylvania
Occupation	Photojournalist
Agent	Magnum Photos
Notable credit(s)	Leica Hall of Fame Award Robert Capa Gold Medal for Best Photographic Reporting from Abroad
Website
http://www.stevemccurry.com

Steve McCurry (born April 23, 1950) is an American photojournalist best known for his photograph, "Afghan Girl" that originally appeared in National Geographic magazine.

Early life[link]

Steve McCurry was born on April 23, 1950 in Philadelphia,^[1] attended Marple Newtown High School, and Penn State University. He originally planned to study cinematography and filmmaking, but ended up getting a degree in theater arts and graduating cum laude in 1974. He became interested in photography when he started taking pictures for the Penn State newspaper The Daily Collegian.^[2]

After working at Today's Post in King of Prussia for two years, he left for India to freelance. It was here that McCurry learned to watch and wait on life. “If you wait,” he realized, “people will forget your camera and the soul will drift up into view.”

Career[link]

His career was launched when, disguised in native garb, he crossed the Pakistan border into rebel-controlled Afghanistan just before the Russian invasion. When he emerged, he had rolls of film sewn into his clothes. Those images, which were published around the world, were among the first to show the conflict. His coverage won the Robert Capa Gold Medal for Best Photographic Reporting from Abroad, an award dedicated to photographers exhibiting exceptional courage and enterprise.

McCurry continued to cover international conflicts, including the Iran-Iraq war, Beirut, Cambodia, the Philippines, the Gulf War, and Afghanistan. McCurry's work has been featured worldwide in magazines and he is a frequent contributor to National Geographic. He has been a member of Magnum Photos since 1986.

He is the recipient of numerous awards, including Magazine Photographer of the Year, awarded by the National Press Photographers’ Association. The same year, he won an unprecedented four first-place prizes in the World Press Photo Contest. He has won the Olivier Rebbot Memorial Award twice.

McCurry focuses on the human consequences of war, not only showing what war impresses on the landscape, but rather, on the human face. “Most of my images are grounded in people. I look for the unguarded moment, the essential soul peeking out, experience etched on a person’s face. I try to convey what it is like to be that person, a person caught in a broader landscape, that you could call the human condition.”

Steve McCurry is portrayed in a TV documentary titled "The Face of the Human Condition" (2003) by French award-winning filmmaker Denis Delestrac.

Afghan Girl[link]

McCurry took his most recognized portrait, "Afghan Girl", in a refugee camp near Peshawar, Pakistan. The image itself was named as "the most recognized photograph" in the history of the National Geographic magazine and her face became famous as the cover photograph on the June 1985 issue. The photo has also been widely used on Amnesty International brochures, posters, and calendars. The identity of the "Afghan Girl" remained unknown for over 17 years until McCurry and a National Geographic team located the woman, Sharbat Gula, in 2002. McCurry said, “Her skin is weathered; there are wrinkles now, but she is as striking as she was all those years ago.”

Kodachrome[link]

Although McCurry shoots both in digital and film, his admitted preference is for transparency film. Eastman Kodak let McCurry shoot the last ever produced roll of Kodachrome transparency film, which was processed in July 2010 by Dwayne's Photo in Parsons, Kansas and will be housed at the George Eastman House.^[3] Most of the photos, excluding a few near-duplicates, have been published on the Internet by Vanity Fair magazine.

"I shot it for 30 years and I have several hundred thousand pictures on Kodachrome in my archive. I'm trying to shoot 36 pictures that act as some kind of wrap up - to mark the passing of Kodachrome. It was a wonderful film."

September 11, 2001[link]

September, 11th 2001 photos

McCurry returned from an extended assignment in China on September 10, 2001.

"I live by Washington Square Park, and my office has a view of Lower Manhattan. I was there, going through mail with my assistant, when we got a phone call saying that the World Trade Center was on fire. I looked out my window and saw both towers were on fire.

I got my camera bag and went up on the roof of my building and started photographing the towers. We didn’t even know it was a plane, because we were up on the roof without the radio or TV. We all thought it was a fire that would eventually be put out—a terrible disaster, I mean both towers were on fire. I figured I’d shoot it from my roof for about 20 minutes and then go down to the base.

And then they just fell.

I was in a state of disbelief. They were just gone. It didn’t seem possible. Like you’re seeing something but you don’t really believe what you’re seeing. Even though I had seen them implode and there was all this smoke, it was not in the realm of possibility for the towers to be gone. It felt like we were living inside a dream, or rather a nightmare.

After they fell, my assistant and I ran down to Ground Zero to photograph the situation there. It was surreal. There was this very fine white powder everywhere and all this office paper, but there was no recognizable office equipment—no filing cabinets, telephones, computers. It seemed like the whole thing had been pulverized. It was just dust, steel and paper.

We were there until 9 at night. Then I walked home, but I couldn’t sleep. So I got up at 3:30 in the morning and walked back down there. As you can imagine, there was serious security: police, firemen, soldiers. But it was very clear to me this needed to be documented. I knew I had to do whatever I had to do to get back down there. I found a way to sneak in by cutting through a fence, and it allowed me to spend the morning of September 12 there. I eventually got removed by the police. They were really angry—the police, the firemen, everyone down there; emotions were running very high. One fireman threatened to beat my brains in with a shovel. I understood their position completely. From their point of view, we were there as tourists or spectators, when really we were there to record history, to create a record of this evil deed. The records of photography and magazines and radio and television are how we’re informed and how we know what’s going on in the world. This was something that absolutely had to be documented, and that’s what I do."

Awards[link]

Publications[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Steve McCurry's Official web site (with image galleries)
• Steve McCurry's gallery at photographic agency "Sudest57" web site
• Capturing the Face of Asia - Interview with Steve McCurry in June 2007 by European Culture and Arts online Magazine "Culturekiosque"
• I Visualize Photo Possibilities Wherever I Am - Interview with Steve McCurry in August 2009 by Indian photography web site "Fotoflock.com"
• One on One with Riz Khan - Al Jezeera interview by Riz Khan on his work