Posts Tagged ‘fine art photography’
William Carter – Discovering the World and Ourselves
Ed. note: this guest post written by Ms Esther Wan was originally published on the blog Special Collections Unbound of the Stanford University Library Special Collections, authored by Laura Wilsey.
American photographer William Carter’s collection of digitized photographs was my first project for Special Collections and having just joined the team at the end of February, I soon found myself sheltered-in-place by mid-March and working from home. Despite the shrinking of my physical world, Carter’s images enabled me to continue exploring far-away places and times past – a fortuitous experience as one who now finds everyday life sometimes more strange than visually traveling through parts unknown.
Spanning a career from the 1950s until the 2000s, Stanford alum (1957) William Carter’s work and travels gave him access to diverse subjects and places and enabled him to document not only specific moments in time but also broad themes common to all cultures. Concepts such as friendship, spirituality, and survival, and human expressions found in curiosity, pride and tenderness can be seen in his imagery – caught from observing people just going about their daily lives or while waiting for those glimpses of quiet vulnerability.
His early works came from assignments that included the New York Times, Trans World Airlines, and Women’s World Daily and spanned far-flung places such as New York, London, Egypt and Yemen in the early to mid-1960s. Photos of celebrities, farmers, children in play and work, street life in villages and cities abound from these travels. Carter’s career-making moment as a photojournalist was established during his journey with Kurdish Peshmerga guerrilla soldiers in northern Iraq while on assignment for Life Magazine in 1965 and yielded a 6-page spread and imagery of a Kurdistan and its peoples still unknown to many. Later, he became involved with longer-term book projects for Sunset Publishing and his portrait close-ups and landscapes of California and the American Midwest of the late 1960s and 1970s resulted from these ventures. William Carter’s personal interests in jazz and blues music, spirituality, and fine art also led to subjects ranging from master musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Manny Sayles and De De Pierce to Tibetan monks and Indian peoples, and abstract landscape and nude photography.
Researching and creating metadata for William Carter’s digitized photographs across such diverse geography and time without the ability to directly consult his film negatives and prints required some creative thinking. First-hand sources such as Carter’s 2011 book “Causes and Spirits”, his blog, video interviews with Tony di Gesu and Dawn Hope Stevens and tapings of his book launch at Kepler’s Books enabled me to identify some images. When these avenues fell short, other institutions’ digital photographic collections – such as those from the J. Paul Getty Museum, SFMOMA and the National Gallery of Art – were also helpful. Occasionally, Carter’s image names provided clues as in the cases of his step-grandson’s portraits and that of the 6th Marquess of Bath. While in other instances, elements in the photos themselves gave chase down various ‘rabbit holes’ such as the name of a Royal Canadian naval destroyer on a sailor’s cap, seeing Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, at a gala premiere, or identifying legendary Illinois football coach Bob Reade during a team practice. As one who enjoys “finding things”, it was immensely satisfying for me to be able to establish connections between seemingly disparate images and to locate details needed to accurately document this collection.
Viewing William Carter’s photographs, one is often left with a haunted feeling of times and places that no longer exist – and yet also the temerity of the human spirit to survive and flourish. At this moment when our worlds are in uncharted territory due to pandemic and unrest and we have been asked to re-examine our own human frailties and strengths, there is much to be found in William Carter’s imagery for reflection and inspiration. The digital images are projected to be accessioned into the SDR and made available via SearchWorks for viewing by the end of June.
Hands Are Us (Part 2)
Moment, 11/25 ©William Carter 1973
Closure, 1/25 Platinum Print, ©William Carter 1992
Suggestion, 1/35 Vintage Silver Print, ©William Carter 1994
Dance, 2/25 Vintage Silver Print, ©William Carter 2006
Shiva, 2/25 Vintage Silver Print, ©William Carter 1989
Actor, New York City, printed later, ©William Carter 1963
Near Ganeshpuri, Maharashtra, India, ©William Carter 1981
Wrestlers 1/35 Vintage Silver Print, ©William Carter
In Touch: Dominique and Sramana
Sramana
Copyright statement: William Carter papers, © Stanford University Libraries. Click here for a detailed usage guide.
Living Spaces 10
1. Dusseldorf, Germany
2. Weimar, Germany
3. Weimar, Germany
4. Dusseldorf, Germany
5. New York, N.Y.
6. Paris, France
7. Dusseldorf, Germany
Copyright statement: William Carter papers, © Stanford University Libraries. Click here for a detailed usage guide.
Living Spaces 9
Response to this post:
Earlier this month I received Living Spaces 9. Thank you so very much for having the sequence sent to me. It is always a treat when I open my mail and see that there is something with your name attached, and then, well, it is a bit like unwrapping a gift, that moment of holding the breath a little, and then that involuntary first response in the first encounter. For example, # 7 (Southern California) had me chuckle, then pause, then hum… the photograph is such a feast of listening and speaking, and how much of that listening we do with our backs, a barely turned head, even the hat hears it and the ocean rolls in to listen along as words bop up and down the belly. Delightful — and loud!
There was also a picture that almost hurt — the last one, # 8, Salisbury, England. Perhaps some gestures ache us when we see them because they awake something we long for even as we might fear it? That gesture of reaching out, its vulnerability, — isn’t that always the most precarious and most dangerous first step in any reconciliation and also its grandeur de vivre? Yes, this picture has accompanied me, just like the Corconio Couple, through many nights. It will continue to challenge me, and that is a good thing.
Thank you again.
Sincerely,
Rahel Hahn
1. Alexandria, Virginia
2. Alexandria, Virginia
3. Illinois
4. Northern California
5. Northern California
6. Northern California
7. Southern California
8. Salisbury, England
Copyright statement: William Carter papers, © Stanford University Libraries. Click here for a detailed usage guide.
Living Spaces 8
This series of posts elicited two particularly eloquent responses via email (other comments below):
“Dear Sir, Thank you for these photographs. In the clutter of my daily life your pictures invite me to living and living spaces that are clear, nuanced, simple, textured, and — especially when I look at the 4th one with that lovely gentle veiling and unveiling— not beholden to fear, the fear of peace or of dying. But lest I get too serious here: they also remind me of the sweet smell of laundry drying outside (I live in paradise, no pollution here). Best wishes and thank you again.” —Rahel Hahn
“Each picture is like a visual poem calling to mind Emily Dickenson in their spare and ambiguous content.” —Weston Naef, Founding Curator of Photographs, J. Paul Getty Museum
1. Ameno (Lago di Orta), Italy, circa 2005
2. Ameno (Lago di Orta), Italy, circa 2005
3. Ameno (Lago di Orta), Italy, circa 2005
4. Gualala, California, circa 2013
5. Gualala, California, circa 2013
6. Lago di Orta, Italy, circa 1989
7. Orta San Giulio, Italy, circa 1992
Copyright statement: William Carter papers, © Stanford University Libraries. Click here for a detailed usage guide.
More William Carter Prints Held by SF MOMA
My previous post of May 8, 2016 brought you news about the sparkling exhibition celebrating the massive expansion and re-opening of the redesigned San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, a William Carter picture, “Near Jerome, Arizona, 1970″ hangs in the photography galleries.
This Arizona print is also reproduced in the large book cataloguing the exhibition: The Campaign for Art.
The official re-opening date of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the exhibitions, including my print, is May 14 and run until Sept. 5. Members have earlier admission dates.
Click here for more information on admission and tickets.
Here are more William Carter prints held in the SF MOMA’s permanent collection:
Near Jerome, Arizona, 1970
Geneseo, Illinois, 1973
Detroit, 1973
Mississippi River, Bellevue, Iowa, 1973
Atherton, California, 1972
Concornio (Lake Orta) Italy, 1989
Sa’da, Yemen, 1964
William Carter papers, © Stanford University Libraries. Click here for a detailed usage guide.
William Carter Print Featured in San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Re-opening Gala
As part of the sparkling exhibition celebrating the massive expansion and re-opening of the redesigned San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, a William Carter picture, “Near Jerome, Arizona, 1970″ hangs in the photography galleries.
Near Jerome, Arizona, 1970
This Arizona print is also reproduced in the large book cataloguing the exhibition: The Campaign for Art.
The official re-opening date of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the exhibitions, including my print, are from May 14 until Sept. 5. Members have earlier admission dates.
Click here for more information on admission and tickets.
Twenty-four Carters are held in SFMOMA’s permanent collections, including these:
Central City, Colorado 1970
Seattle, 1962
Northern Minnesota, 1973
Lower East Side, New York City, 1963
San Francisco, 1969
Northern Minnesota, 1973
William Carter papers, © Stanford University Libraries. Click here for a detailed usage guide.
Living Spaces 7
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Copyright statement: William Carter papers, © Stanford University Libraries. Click here for a detailed usage guide.
Living Spaces 6
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Copyright statement: William Carter papers, © Stanford University Libraries. Click here for a detailed usage guide.
Copyright statement: William Carter papers, © Stanford University Libraries. Click here for a detailed usage guide.
Living Spaces 5
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Copyright statement: William Carter papers, © Stanford University Libraries. Click here for a detailed usage guide.
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Copyright statement: William Carter papers, © Stanford University Libraries. Click here for a detailed usage guide.
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Copyright statement: William Carter papers, © Stanford University Libraries. Click here for a detailed usage guide.
Living Spaces 2
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Copyright statement: William Carter papers, © Stanford University Libraries. Click here for a detailed usage guide.
Living Spaces 1
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Copyright statement: William Carter papers, © Stanford University Libraries. Click here for a detailed usage guide.
By William Carter 