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Henry Wessel Jr.

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Henry Wessel, Jr. (born 1942 in Teaneck, New Jersey) is an American photographer noted for his descriptive, yet poetic photographs of the human environment. He is the recipient of two Guggenheim Fellowships [1][2] and three National Endowment for the Arts grants.[3] His photographs are included in the permanent collections of major American, European, and Asian museums. Wessel's first solo exhibition was curated by John Szarkowski at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1972[4] and he was one of ten photographers included in the influential New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape exhibition at George Eastman House in 1975.[5] His work has since been frequently and widely exhibited, including solo exhibitions at the Tate Modern in London, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Wessel has also produced a number of books of his photography.

On the work of Henry Wessel, Senior Curator of Photography at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Sandra S. Phillips wrote, "Wessel's remarkable work, witty, evocative and inventive, is distinctive and at the same time a component part of the great development of photography which flourished in the 1970s. The pictures continue to grow and evolve and the work is now regarded as an individual important contribution to twentieth century American photography[6]

Quotes by Wessel on his process

  • It's a pleasure for me. The process of photographing. Being physically in the world, eyes open, attentive, sensing, and at some point, connecting. To be in the world and of the world. To be, at the same time, out of your head, yet absolutely, exactly, there. It's thrilling when your eyes get ahead of your brain." [7]
  • "It has to do with the discipline of being actively receptive. At the core of this receptivity is a process that might be called soft eyes. It is a physical sensation. You are not looking for something. You are open, receptive. At some point you are in front of something that you cannot ignore."[8]

Selected Books by Wessel

  • House Pictures. San Francisco: Fraenkel Gallery, 1992. OCLC 26864482. "This publication accompanies an exhibition held at Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, from 26 February to 28 March 1992"
  • Night Walk. Santa Monica, CA: RAM Publications + Distribution, 2000. ISBN 978-0963078575.
  • California and the West / Odd Photos / Las Vegas / Real Estate Photographs / Night Walk. Göttingen: Steidl, 2006. ISBN 978-3865211330. Multi-volume set.
  • Henry Wessel. Göttingen: Steidl; San Francisco: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 2007. ISBN 978-3865213914. Retrospective. With an essay by Sandra S. Phillips.
  • Waikiki. Göttingen: Steidl, 2012. ISBN 978-3869303000.
  • Incidents. Göttingen: Steidl, 2013. ISBN 978-3869306971.

Selected Publications about Wessel and his work

  • Looking at Photographs: 100 Pictures from the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1973. ISBN 978-0870705151. By John Szarkowski.
  • "Henry Wessel." Göttingen: Steidl, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and Die Photographische Sammlung/SK Stiftung Kultur, 2007. ISBN 978-3865213914. Edited by Thomas Zander with introductions by Sandra S. Phillips and George Imdahl.
  • New Topographics: Roberts Adams, Lewis Baltz, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Joe Deal, Frank Gohlke, Nicholas Nixon, John Schott, Stephen Shore, Henry Wessel, Jr.. Göttingen: Steidl, 2009. ISBN 978-3865218278. Includes the work of Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Joe Deal, Frank Grohlke, Nicholas Nixon, John Schott, Stephen Shore and Henry Wessel, Jr.
  • "Closer than Fiction: American Visual Worlds around 1970." Walther König, Köln, Germany, 2011. ISBN 978-3863351199. Edited and with introduction by Brigitte Franzen and Anna Sophia Schultz.[9]
  • "Under the Big Black Sun: California Art, 1974-1981," Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, 2011. ISBN 978-3791351391. Edited by Elizabeth Hamilton.[10]

Selected Solo Exhibitions[11]

Selected Group Exhibitions[11]

  • 1975: New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape, International Museum of Photography, George Eastman House, Rochester, New York, January 1975. Curated by William Jenkins. Included work by Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Joe Deal, Frank Gohlke, Nicholas Nixon, John Schott, Stephen Shore and Wessel.[5]
  • 1978: "Mirrors and Windows: American Photography Since 1960," Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY.
  • 1983: "Twentieth Century Photographs from the Museum of Modern Art," Museum of Modern Art, New York, and Seibu Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan.
  • 1989: "Picturing California: A Century of Photographic Genius," Oakland Museum, CA.
  • 1991: "Pleasures and Terrors of Domestic Comfort," Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY.
  • 1993: "Critical Landscape," Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Japan.
  • 1996: "Crossing the Frontier: Photographs of the Developing West 1849 to the Present," San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA.
  • 2000: "Walker Evans & Company," Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY.
  • 2003: "Looking at Photographs," State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia.
  • 2005: "Amerikanische Street Photography," Stadtische Galerie Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg, Germany.
  • 2005: "Gary Winogrand and American Street Photographers Mitch Epstein, Lee Friedlander, Joel Meyerowitz, and Henry Wessel, foam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
  • 2009: "Into the Sunset," Museum of Modern Art, New York.
  • 2011-12: "Focus: Los Angeles, 1945-1980," The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA.
  • 2011-12: "Under the Big Black Sun: California Art, 1974-1981," Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA.

Awards

References

  1. ^ Mathias, James F. Letter to Henry Wessel Jr. March 23, 1971. John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.TS.
  2. ^ Ray, Gordon N. Letter to Henry Wessel Jr. March 15, 1978. John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.TS.
  3. ^ Zander, Thomas, ed. (2007). Henry Wessel. Göttingen, Germany: Steidl. ISBN 978-3865213914.
  4. ^ "Exhibition Press Release - SFMOMA Presents Henry Wessel: Photographs". San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 13 July 2015.
  5. ^ a b Jenkins, William. New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape. Catalogue. Rochester, NY: International Museum of Photography at the George Eastman House, 1975.
  6. ^ Phillips, Sandra S. (2007). Zander, Thomas (ed.). Henry Wessel. Göttingen, Germany: Steidl. ISBN 978-3865213914.
  7. ^ Janacek, Stefan (1987). Henry Wessel: An Interview by Stefan Janacek. Tokyo, Japan: Gallery Min.
  8. ^ Gefter, Philip (May 21, 2006). "Henry Wessel: Capturing the Image, Transcending the Subject". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 July 2015.
  9. ^ Franzen, Brigitte; Schultz, Anna Sophia, eds. (2011). Closer than Fiction: American Visual Worlds around 1970. Köln, Germany: Walther König. ISBN 978-3863351199.
  10. ^ Hamilton, Elizabeth, ed. (2011). Under the Big Black Sun: California Art, 1974-1981. Los Angeles, CA: The Museum of Contemporary Art. ISBN 978-3791351391.
  11. ^ a b "Exhibitions-Henry Wessel". Galerie Thomas Zander. Retrieved July 6, 2015.
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