Barbara Morgan (photographer)
Barbara Morgan (1900–1992) was an American photographer best known for her work in dance. She was a co-founder of the photography magazine Aperture.
The Barbara Morgan Archive is represented by Bruce Silverstein Gallery New York, New York.
Biography
She was born Barbara Brooks Johnson in Buffalo, Kansas, but grew up in California. She attended University of California, Los Angeles as a painting student. After a one year teaching stint at San Fernando High School, she worked at UCLA, where she married photographer Willard D. Morgan. Her awakening to the artistic possibilities of photography began when she hung an exhibition at UCLA by Edward Weston.
After a 1930 move to New York Morgan continued her drawing and painting work, with her first solo show held in Philadelphia in 1934. But after the birth of her second son, she began concentrating on photography. In 1935 she met Martha Graham and began several years of photographing Graham and other dancers including Merce Cunningham, Doris Humphrey, and José Limón. In 1938, she was invited to the Bennington College Summer School of Dance as its official photographer.
She returned to painting in the 1950s, but continued renown for her camerawork. In 1975, she was a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts grant. In later life she lived in Scarsdale, New York, and she died in Tarrytown, New York.
Chronology
- 1988 Awarded Lifetime Achievement Award by American Society of Magazine Photographers, Washington, D.C
- 1978 Included in book and exhibit, RECOLECTIONS: Ten Women of Photography,International Center of Photography, New York.
- 1978 Received honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts, Marquette University, Milwaukee.
- 1977 Created BARBARA MORGAN DANCE PORTFOLIO.
- 1975 Received grant from National Endowment for the Arts.
- 1970 Elected Fellow of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
- 1968-88 Prepared major exhibitions and delivered numerous lectures and seminars.
- 1967 Death of Willard D. Morgan.
- 1961 One-person painting and graphics exhibition, Sherman Gallery, New York.
- 1959 Art archeological trip to Crete, Greece, Spain, Italy, France and England.
- 1942-55 Continued photographic projects and exhibitions. Published second book, Summer's Children: A photographic Cycle of Life at Camp. Picture-edited and designed book by Erica Anderson and Eugene Exman, The World of Albert Schweitzer (Harper & Row, N.Y., 1955
- 1941 Moved to Scarsdale, New York. Published book, Martha Graham: Sixteen Dances in Photographs. Awarded American Institute of Graphic Arts Trade Book Clinic Award.
- 1935-41 Photographed, exhibited pictures of city themes, dance, children, photomontages and light drawings.
- 1931 Established a studio in New York for painting and lithography. Exhibited graphics at Weyhe Gallery, New York, and other galleries.
- 1935 Son Lloyd was born. Saw Martha Graham perform Primitive Mysteries. Began photographing Martha Graham dances.
- 1934 One-person painting and graphics exhibition, Mellon Gallery, Philadelphia.
- 1932 Son Douglas was born. Continued to exhibit paintings.
- 1930 Moved to New York City. Traveled for Willard's Morgan's Leica Lectures. For study, photographed Barnes Foundation art collection, Merion, Pennsylvania.
- 1925-30 Joined art faculty, UCLA. Taught design, landscape, and woodcut. Published, Block Print Book, containing work of woodcut students. Served variously as writer, managing editor, and editor for Dark and Light Magazine, Arthur Wesley Dow Association, UCLA. Painted and photographed in the Southwest with Willard in the summers. Met Edward Weston and realized photography as a medium for artistic expression.
- 1925 Married with Willard Morgan.
- 1923-24 Taught art in San Fernando High School, San Fernando, California.
- 1919-23 Student, University of California a Los Angeles, majoring in art.
- 1900 Born Barbara Brooks Johnson on July 8 in Buffalo, Kansas. Same year family moved to West Coast. Grew up on peach ranch in Southern California.
Published works
- Martha Graham: Sixteen Dances in Photographs
- Summer's Children (about summer camp culture)
- Barbara Morgan- A Morgan & Morgan Monograph, 1972
- Barbara Morgan: Photomontage, 1980
Awards and recognition
- Lifetime Achievement Award of American Society of Magazine Photographers