The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation has contributed greatly to photography over the years.
Ansel Adams, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Diane Arbus, Lewis Baltz, Harry Callahan, Paul Caponigro, William Christenberry, Imogen Cunningham, Roy De Carava, William Eggleston…
These are just a few of the more famous photographers who have been awarded fellowships in the past – I soon got tired with reading through the listings.
Great works like Walker Evans’s ‘American Photographs‘, Robert Frank’s ‘The Americans‘ and Edward Weston’s pictures for ‘California and the West‘ would not have been possible without them. Of course as well as names familiar to everyone, there are also those in the Guggenheim lists who are less well known – and even some of those with photography prizes who I’ve never heard of.
Photographers only form a small proportion of the over 16,000 fellows it has supported in 85 years, and, as it tells you on the State of the Art blog, 7 of the 180 fellowships this year went to photographers. You’ll find all 7 mentioned there with one of their pictures and at least in most cases a link to more work.
Many in the UK will have come across landscape photographer Thomas Joshua Cooper, Professor and Senior Researcher in Fine Art, The Glasgow School of Art. His exhibition True opened at the Haunch of Venison gallery in London last Friday (until 30 May 2009.)
Another photographer among the seven honoured who I’ve written about several times is Brian Ulrich. I’m pleased to see that his work has been recognised in this way.