Hal Gould

Hal Gould (born February 29, 1920 in Clark, Wyoming) is an American photographer and gallery curator.

Man of many careers

Gould grew up on a farm in New Mexico and left home at the age of 15. After holding a number of different jobs, he entered dentistry school, but was drafted into the army in 1940. After he was called to duty, he joined E Company, 19th Infantry Regiment. Eventually he entered officer school and became a head personnel officer. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, he island-hopped with General Douglas MacArthur and remained in Japan during the occupation.

While Gould held many jobs during his life, including railroad-tie repairer, boxer, aviator, and painter, it was his pursuit of photography that would change his life. For nearly a quarter of a century he practiced as a portrait photographer, eventually shifting into fine art photography.

Gould repeatedly tried to display his fine art photography in the Denver Art Museum, but director Otto Bach refused to consider the medium. To make artistic photography available to the public, Gould opened a photography gallery directly behind the Denver Art Museum, called Camera Obscura. This is now one of the oldest (if not the oldest) galleries dedicated exclusively to fine art photography. Gould's gallery gave Sebastião Salgado his first show in America, and has been publishing the Photography in the Fine Arts Quarterly since 1983. Gould's own photographic contributions to Camera Obscura include Western scenery and flora along with pictures from his various travels.

Gould's most prominent works include:

• Penguin Hallelujah Chorus
• Cowboy and Lady (collaboration with Mollie Uhl Eaton)
• Bristle Cone Pine—'Ming Dog Tree'

Miscellaneous facts

• Gould met Laura Gilpin at the age of 12 when she drove through Cuba, New Mexico in 1932. On that same trip, Gilpin photographed her picture, Leadbelly.

• He received an autographed pair of boxing gloves from Olympic Games Gold Medalist Teofil Stevenson in Cuba after joking with him at the 1980 Olympics.

• At the age of 19 Gould boxed Eddie Chavez in a lighthearted exhibition match. Gould won by technical knockout in the third round.

• Early in his gallery career, Gould staged a show selling prints by Ansel Adams and Edward Weston for $25 apiece. There were no takers. Today, Weston's Green Pepper sells for $100,000 to $200,000 at auction.

• Famous broadway actor Maurice Evans was drafted into Hal's infantry regimen. As the personnel officer, Hal immediately had him transferred to the USO. Evans would later entertain Hal's unit with productions of Shakespeare with Judith Andrews.

• While Gould was in the Pacific during World War II, actress Judith Andrews, who was there for a USO show, sat in his chair and, accompanied by the gesture of slapping her hips, told him that it was the only one that accommodated her since she'd been performing for the troops.

• Gould once had a date with actress Judy Garland, which went rather poorly for both of them.

• He has visited every continent, including Antarctica in 2000 and Africa in 2004.

• His favorite photographs of all time include W. Eugene Smith's Tomoko Uemura in Her Bath (Minamata series), Robert Capa's Falling Soldier, and Philippe Halsman's portrait of Albert Einstein.

• He took a picture of Gregorio Fuentes—the inspiration for Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea—on Fuentes's 100th birthday.

Personal quote

"Art is in the artist, not in the medium!"

External links

• Camera Obscura's home page