ABOUT THE ARTIST
 |
| ABOUT THE ARTIST |
| Todd Webb on the Water |
| Biography In 1905, Charles Clayton ("Todd") Webb III was born in Detroit, Michigan. Todd Webb first picked up a camera in the late 1930's. He had hopes of becoming a travel writer and lecturer using a camera to record his journeys. Having been a successful stockbroker in the 1920’s, he lost all of his earnings, and then some, in The Crash. During the Depression, Webb prospected for gold, worked as a forest ranger, and wrote short stories that have gone unpublished. His interest and love for photography soon crowded out his writing ambitions, and he was able to do the three things he loved the most: travel, meet people, and photograph them. In 1938, Webb joined the Chrysler Camera Club in Detroit where he met aspiring photographer Harry Callahan. Through a workshop from Ansel Adams, Webb's interest in the sharp focus technique of "straight photography" was confirmed. After World War II, Todd Webb worked for Roy Stryker and Standard Oil. In 1946, Webb photographed extensively in New York. Alfred Stieglitz introduced him to Beaumont Newhall, and later Newhall curated the first major exhibition of Webb's photographs for The Museum of The City of New York. Upon returning to Paris in 1949, Webb met his wife Lucille, and together, they remained in France for the next four years. In both 1955 and 1956, he was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim fellowship to photograph the emigrant trails that the early settlers followed to Oregon and California. He spent these years walking across the country with his camera not unlike his contemporary, Robert Frank. During his travels out West, Webb remained in contact with Stieglitz's widow, Georgia O'Keeffe. His friendship with O'Keeffe developed and endured, eventually leading him, with his wife Lucille, to join O'Keeffe in New Mexico for 10 years. Between the years 1961-1971, they opened a bookstore on Canyon Road, and were an integral part of the art community. It was at this time that Webb photographed Georgia O'Keeffe and her home. In 1978 Todd received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and used the money to print a large volume of new work. Up until the 1980's, Todd Webb photographed and produced a unique body of work which attained an important place in the annals of American photographic history. Frequently referred to as "an historian with a camera," Webb's wonderfully rich images document life all over the world, including New York, France and the American West. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, with important shows in New York, Santa Fe, Tokyo and London. Todd Webb died in May, 2000 at the age of 94 in Central Maine. His life was like his photographs; at first they seem very simple, without obvious tricks or manipulation, but on closer examination, they are increasingly complex and marvelously subtle. |
| Exhibitions |
| 2010 Seeing Portland: 1970 - 1984, Zero Station, Portland, Maine 2010 Georgia O'Keeffe and the Faraway: Nature and Image, The National Cowgirl Museum of Art, Fort Worth Texas, The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico 2009 Through the Photographer's Lens: O'Keeffe and her Circle, Kalamazoo Institute of Art, Kalamazoo, Michigan 2009 Picturing New York: Photographs from the Museum of Modern Art, Irish Museum of Modern Art, La Casa Encendida, Madrid, Spain, Museo di arte moderna e contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, Italy 2008 Yosemite 1938: On the Trail with Ansel Adams and Georgia O'Keeffe from the National Museum of Wildlife Art, Rockwell Museum of Western Art, Corning, New York 2008 Todd Webb: Joy Without Measure, University of Maine Museum of Art, Orono, Maine 2008 Georgia O’Keeffe and the Camera: The Art of Identity, Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Maine 2006 Georgia O’Keeffe: Color and Conservation, Memorial Art Gallery, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 2006 Georgia O’Keeffe: Color and Conservation at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico 2006 Georgia O’Keeffe Color and Conservation at the Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, Mississippi 2005 Todd Webb at 100: The Celebration of a Life at the Maine Arts Commission, Augusta, Maine 2005 “Georgia O’Keeffe and the Sublime” University of Michigan, Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, Michigan, Fresno Metropolitan Museum, Fresno, California, Eiteljorg Museum, Indianapolis, Indiana, Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, Tennessee, Boise Art Museum, Idaho 2002 Todd Webb: Looking Back Camera, Obscura Gallery, Denver, Colorado 2002 Gotham: Photographs of New York - Fitchburg Art Museum, Fitchburg, Massachusetts 2002 Georgia O'Keeffe: The Artist's Landscape - Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico 2002 Georgia O'Keeffe Through the Eyes of Friends: Portraits and Landscapes, Scheinbaum & Russek, Ltd., Santa Fe, New Mexico 2001 Todd Webb: Photographs of Paris, Aucocisco Gallery Portland, Maine 2001 O'Keeffe: The Artist's Landscape, Photographs by Todd Webb - Durango Arts Center: Durango, Colorado 2001 Interiors and Signs of the Times: An Exhibition of 20th Century Photographs, University of New England, Portland, Maine 2000 Walker Evans & Company Exhibition, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York 2000 Todd Webb: Paris Photographs, Fitchburg Art Museum, Fitchburg Massachusetts 2000 Photographs by the late Todd Webb: The American West, O’Keeffe, New York, Paris, Aucocisco Gallery, Portland, Maine 2000 O'Keeffe on Paper - National Gallery of Art Washington, DC 2000 Georgia O'Keeffe: The Artist's Landscape Photographs by Todd Webb Durango Arts Center, Durango, CO 1998 Todd Webb Retrospective: Photos of New York, Paris and O’Keeffe, Osaka & Tokyo 1997 Paris - Vintage prints from the 1940’s & 50’s - Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York 1997 Georgia O’Keeffe: Photos by Todd Webb - Scheinbaum & Russek Santa Fe, New Mexico 1996 Todd Webb: Looking Back, A Retrospective Show of 100 prints Payson Gallery at Westbrook College, Portland, Maine 1996 In conjunction with screening of "Honest Vision" a film of Todd Webb’s life Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Maine 1995 New York 1946, Vintage Prints, Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York 1995 Georgia O'Keeffe: The Artist's Landscape - Photographs by Todd Webb, Oglethorpe University, Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia 1994 Of, For and By Georgia O’Keeffe, Whitney Museum, Stamford, Connecticut 1992 Houk-Friedman Gallery, New York 1991 Scheinbaum & Russek, Santa Fe, New Mexico 1991 Evans Gallery, Portland, Maine 1988 Barridoff Galleries, Portland, Maine 1984 Barn Gallery, Ogonquit, Maine 1982 Maine Arts Festival, Walker Museum of Art, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine 1982 In Sequence, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas 1980 University of Southern Maine, Gorham, Maine 1979 Prakapas Gallery, New York 1977 Westbrook College, Portland, Maine 1977 Rinhart Gallery, New York 1974 19th Century Public Buildings, Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas 1971 New Mexico Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico 1971 Maison de la Tour, St. Restitut, France 1969 Harlem On My Mind, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 1968 USA Arts, Provence, France 1967 Show 51 Todd Webb Photographs, University of South Western Louisiana 1967 Invitational Photographic Exhibition, San Jose State College, San Jose, California 1967 100 Todd Webb Photographs, Museum of The South West, Midlands, Texas 1966 Todd Webb Photographs, Texas A&M, College Station, Texas 1966 Guggenheim Fellows in Photography, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1966 19th Century Texas Homes: 100 Prints Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas 1965 Todd Webb Photographs: 101 Prints Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas 1965 New York By Day And Night, Lincoln Center, New York 1962 University of Indiana 1962 Museum of Modern Art, Kalamazoo, Michigan 1962 Les Grandes Photographes de Notre Temps Hotel de Ville, Versailles, France 1962 Ideas and Images - sponsored by the American Federation of Art 1962 Eliot Porter, Laura Gilpin and Todd Webb Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico 1960 Photographs For Collectors, Museum of Modern Art New York 1959 Art USA - New York City Coliseum, New York 1958 U.S.I.S. Exhibit at the Brussels World Fair, A mural four feet high and twenty-four feet long, of one block on Sixth Avenue, photographed in 1948. 1957 70 Photographers See New York, Museum of Modern Art, New York 1956 90 Photographs by Todd Webb, Chicago Art Institute, Chicago, Illinois 1955 The Family Of Man, Museum of Modern Art, New York 1954 80 Photographs by Todd Webb, Eastman House, Rochester, New York 1953 National Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan 1953 Diogenes With A Camera, Museum of Modern Art, New York 1951 65 Photographs of Paris - US Embassy, Paris 1950 Paris Architecture - Architectural Center, Wuppertal, Germany 1950 Museum of Art, Munich, Germany 1948 In & Out Of Focus, Museum of Modern Art, New York 1948 Fifty Photographs By Fifty Photographers, Museum of Modern Art, New York 1947 Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 1947 Delgado Museum, New Orleans, Louisiana 1946 Museum of the City of New York, New York |
| Honest Vision: A Portrait of Todd Webb a film by Huey |