See John Szarkowski discussing his career and photography at Walker Arts Center
Photographer and curator John Szarkowski discussing his photography and career, from the documentary Speaking of Art: John Szarkowski on John Szarkowski (2005).
Checkerboard Film Foundation (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
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Great Museums Television (A Britannica Publishing Partner)Learn about the role of the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota; from the documentary Creative Catalyst: The Walker Art Center.
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Great Museums Television (A Britannica Publishing Partner)A discussion concerning Abby Aldrich Rockefeller and the creation of MoMA, from the documentary In Our Time: The Museum of Modern Art.
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Checkerboard Film Foundation (A Britannica Publishing Partner)Photographer and curator John Szarkowski discussing the work of Ansel Adams, from the documentary Speaking of Art: John Szarkowski on Ansel Adams (2004).
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Checkerboard Film Foundation (A Britannica Publishing Partner)Harry Callahan discussing his start in photography and the first time he viewed an Ansel Adams print, from the documentary Harry Callahan: Eleanor and Barbara (1983).
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Checkerboard Film Foundation (A Britannica Publishing Partner)Architect Yoshio Taniguchi discussing his design of New York City's Museum of Modern Art, from the documentary Yoshio Taniguchi: The New Museum of Modern Art (2008).
Transcript
JOHN SZARKOWSKI: During my career in the gallery committee, one visiting jury included Bill Friedman, at the lower right of this group portrait of important people at the Walker Art Center. Friedman was a member of the visiting jury, and I was probably explaining to him why it was wrong to call Van Eyck's pictures photographic. And, probably to change the subject, he said if I had nothing better to do after graduation, I could apply for a job at the Walker. So early in 1948 I went to that very interesting museum as staff photographer at a salary of $200 a month. Well, I thought it was to be $200 a month. That was my misunderstanding. It was actually $40 a week, working out to $200 a month. But forget--forget money. It was a great job. I did everything--all kinds of photography known to man. There is a portrait of Max Weber the morning after the opening of his retrospective there, in, I suppose, about '49. This is a portrait of a martini set for the Walker's magazine, then called the "Everyday Art Quarterly." I did reportage on various things, including their sales and rental gallery. After dark I would stay on for a good part of the night and do my own work. Minneapolis had a ocean of grain elevators, which were simply a delight to photograph in.
The Walker Arts Center in those days was still in the process of defining what its own role might be. So it was a perfect place for a young person who had not yet defined his own. I was, of course, irrevocably committed to being a photographer, but how that would relate to, for example, how to make a living, was a question that I assumed would solve itself eventually. There was no great hurry, I thought.
The Walker Arts Center in those days was still in the process of defining what its own role might be. So it was a perfect place for a young person who had not yet defined his own. I was, of course, irrevocably committed to being a photographer, but how that would relate to, for example, how to make a living, was a question that I assumed would solve itself eventually. There was no great hurry, I thought.