Todd Webb, a Photographer Who Once Walked From New York to San Francisco, Has Archive Preserved
The Sixth Avenue (Sixth Avenue Between 43rd and 44th Streets), New York, New York, 1948.
The MUUS Collection has acquired the Todd Webb archive, an American photographer whose images of postwar city life in New York City and Paris serve as visual time capsules to bygone eras. MUUS preserves, researches, and reveals works from the archives in its care.
Born in Detroit in 1905, Webb traveled the world and in the 1950s was awarded two Guggenheim Fellowships, which allowed him to photograph the pioneer trails of early American settlers as he walked from New York City to San Francisco. Webb also photographed in the United Kingdom, Papua New Guinea, France, and several countries in Africa.
Webb didn’t pick up photography until after the Crash of 1929, in which he reportedly lost all his earnings. But according to his Wikipedia page, in 1940 he completed a 10-day workshop with Ansel Adams, before joining the United States Navy as a photographer.
The Cherry Man, Rue Mouffetard, Paris, 1950.
Coney Island, 1946.
Lisette Model, New York, 1946.
After the war, he moved to New York City and moved in the most illustrious art and photography circles of the mid-20th century, developing close relationships with Alfred Stieglitz, Georgia O’Keeffe, Walker Evans, and Beaumont Newhall.
Up until the 1980s, Webb actively photographed, and his portraiture of artists and friends — including Berenice Abbott, Gordon Parks, Dorothea Lange, and Lisette Model — remains an indelible record of his time.
Alfred Stieglitz, New York, 1946.
Berenice Abbott, New York, 1946.
O’Keeffe on the Portal, Ghost Ranch, 1963.
Photographing near Abiquiu, New Mexico, 1959.
“Todd Webb was a key figure in New York’s post-Second World War photography scene,” says Sophie Wright, Executive Director of MUUS Collection. “Friends with Alfred Stieglitz and his wife Georgia O’Keeffe (to whom he taught photography), he had his first solo exhibition at Museum of the City of New York in 1946. From an earlier generation than our existing holdings, Webb’s archive deepens the story of American 20th-century photography in the MUUS Collection.”
Webb’s archive comprises approximately 15,000 prints and 50,000 negatives, among other ephemera, including his extensive journal, which offers a rich record of the photography community in postwar New York. The archive will sit alongside the work of other luminary photographers within MUUS Collection, including Rosalind Fox Solomon, Larry Fink, and Deborah Turbeville.
The MUUS Collection says it will build on the work of the Todd Webb archive to expand awareness of his photography through exhibitions and publications, and will further digitize the archive to make it accessible through its online platform, Muuseum.
Image credits: Todd Webb/Courtesy of the MUUS Collection
