An abstract expressionist photographer, Aaron Siskind (1903-1991), had started taking photos when he was given a camera as a wedding present in 1929, at which point he began taking photos during his honeymoon. Focusing on natural and architectural details, Siskind intended to create new images out of flat surfaces that he would claim to be completely different from the original subject matter. Beginning in 1932, he joined the New York Photo League, where he produced socially conscious photo series, including the extremely popular Harlem Document. In 1943 he began doing more symbolic and abstract photographs of objects seen in Massachusetts, specifically the Gloucester and Martha’s Vineyard areas. In 1945 he published an article titled “The Drama of Objects” while he formed enduring ties to the artists of the New York School. After teaching in Trenton, New Jersey, he wrote an artist’s statement for the Museum of Modern Art symposium “What is Modern Photography?” in 1950.
In 1951, Siskind taught during the summer at Black Mountain College with fellow photographer Harry Callahan, after which Callahan invited Siskind to join the faculty of Chicago’s Institute of Design of the Illinois Institute of Technology as Professor of Photography until 1959 when he became the Photographic Department’s director. With Callahan, he published an article in the publication Aperture titled “Learning Photography at the Institute of Design” in 1956, and three years later he published his own book. Over the years Siskind would receive numerous awards including the Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, and founded the Society for Photographic Education, and in 1984 a foundation devoted to his pictures, whose income would support contemporary photography. At the age of 87, Aaron Siskind died in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1991.
Terrific - thanks.
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