Luciano Perna, a Conceptual artist whose quirky sculptures and varied photographs play with the elasticity of matter and time, often concealing unexpected autobiographical depths, died Dec. 28 in Los Angeles. The cause was an apparent heart attack, according to Darcy Huebler, his wife of 35 years and associate dean at California Institute of the Arts … [Read more…]
Robert Cumming, an artist best known for Conceptual photographs that were instrumental in a major transformation of camera work in the 1970s and early ’80s, died Dec. 16 in Desert Hot Springs, Calif. He was 78. According to his life partner, Margaret Irwin-Brandon, Cumming died from complications of Parkinson’s disease. Cumming worked primarily in black-and-white, … [Read more…]
It is a measure of Mr. Bunnell’s success that today photography is unquestionably accepted as both a fine art and a discipline worthy of historical scholarship. Things were different in the late 1950s, when he entered college: He had to struggle to find professors, let alone programs, that took the subject seriously. “There were lots … [Read more…]
Peter C. Bunnell, who over a 35-year career at the Museum of Modern Art and Princeton University transformed the history of photography from a side interest among professional photographers to a rigorous academic discipline, died on Sept. 20 at his home in Princeton, N.J. He was 83. Malcolm Daniel, an executor of his estate who … [Read more…]
James Prigoff, who after beginning his career in business turned his attention to photography, documenting public murals and street art in thousands of pictures taken all over the world and helping to legitimize works once dismissed as vandalism, died on April 21 at his home in Sacramento, Calif. He was 93. His granddaughter Perri Prigoff … [Read more…]
St. Elmo Village co-founder Roderick Sykes, whose Mid-City Black art enclave and community center nurtured generations of creative minds and served as a gathering place for the founders of the Black Lives Matter movement, has died. He was 75. Sykes had complications related to Alzheimer’s disease and died at home in the village, said his … [Read more…]
“Suddenly, absolutely overnight, 25,000 of the rarest photographs ever taken were off the market,” said Weston Naef, who helped Mr. Wolf plan the acquisition for the Getty and later became its first curator of photography. “It would be like someone removing half the gold from Fort Knox.” Along with steady work for private clients, he … [Read more…]
Once Christopher Cardozo found his life’s purpose, he never wavered. The art collector, dealer and publisher devoted his career to promoting the photography of Edward Curtis, who extensively documented Native American life in the early 20th century. As a result, Curtis’ work is much more accessible today. “I was led to this,” Cardozo told the … [Read more…]
Barbara Ess, an artist and musician best known for plumbing the limits of perception with a pinhole camera, died on Thursday at her home in Elizaville, N.Y. She was 76. The cause was cancer, according to Bard College, where she was an associate professor of photography. In a varied career rooted in the downtown Manhattan … [Read more…]
Naomi Rosenblum, who wrote about the history of photography and helped elevate it as an art form, died on Feb. 19 at her home in Long Island City, Queens. She was 96. The cause was congestive heart failure, her family said. Dr. Rosenblum was the author of seminal works that helped bring scholarship and recognition … [Read more…]