In 1905, Charles Clayton ("Todd") Webb III was born in Detroit, Michigan. Like Atget, Webb came to his ultimate profession late in life in 1939. He had been a successful stockbroker in the Twenties, then lost his earnings in The Crash that precursored the Great Depression. During the Depression, Webb prospected for gold, worked as a forest ranger, and for about a decade wrote short stories that no one would publish. Finally Webb went to work for Chrysler Corporation in their Export Division to further his interest in international affairs. In 1938 Webb joined the Chrysler Camera Club, where Webb met aspiring photographer Harry Callahan. Webb and Callahan embarked on their photographic career together, which began with a workshop from Ansel Adams. The workshop with Adams reaffirmed Webb's interest in the sharp focus technique of "straight photography," rejecting the popular manipulated methods of the Pictorialists.
     After photographing for the Navy in WWII in the South Pacific, Webb moved to New York in the early 1940's. Webb soon developed his own unique style of photographing and was further encouraged by Alfred Stieglitz, the often considered "Godfather of modern photography," to immerse himself in the medium. Stieglitz introduced Webb to Georgia O'Keeffe, Berenice Abbott, Lisette Model, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Walker Evans and Edward Steichen, all of whom became important figures in Webb's life.
     In 1946 Webb's photographic career soared with the showing of 165 photographs at the Museum of the City of New York. Soon after his first exhibition, he was hired by Fortune Magazine and by Roy Stryker of Standard Oil, who had previously headed the Historical Section of the Farm Security Administration. Webb worried that working for Standard Oil might affect his feelings about photography, yet Stryker was an extraordinary editor who helped Webb come to terms with making a living as a photographer.
     After his work with Stryker and a few years of photographing in France, Todd Webb followed the trail of the Gold Rush of 1849 across the country with the help of two Guggenheim Fellowships. During his travels out West, he remained in contact with Stieglitz's widow, Georgia O'Keeffe. His friendship with O'Keeffe developed and endured, eventually leading Webb and his wife Lucille to join O'Keeffe in New Mexico for 10 years.
     Up until the 1980's, Todd Webb photographed and produced an 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 internationally exhibited, with important shows in New York, Santa Fe, Tokyo and London. Todd Webb's work is in the collections of fifteen major museums, including the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), NY; the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the Chicago Art Institute; and the George Eastman House, Rochester, NY. On April 15, 2000 at the age of 94, Todd Webb passed away peacefully in central Maine.