Willard Van Dyke
1906-1986
Van Dyke was an integral part of the development of both still photography and documentary filmmaking as an artistic practice. In 1932, he hosted the founding meeting of Group f.64 in his Oakland loft, attended by a group of photographers connected by a common belief in the superiority of “straight,” unmanipulated photography over the pictorialist fashion of the day. Group f.64 members included Edward Weston, Imogen Cunningham, and Ansel Adams, all using large format cameras to make photographs exhibiting extreme sharpness. Their images were made with small lens apertures, hence the name f. 64, producing negatives of great detail and clarity, and then contact printed
Scheinbaum & Russek first opened its doors in October of 1980 with an exhibition of Willard Van Dyke’s exquisite photographs from his f.64-era and his later work in Ireland. Now, approaching our 44th year, we are presenting a rare group of Willard’s prints to begin celebrating our 44th year with gratitude for the photography community that has given us so much.
Van Dyke was an integral part of the development of both still photography and documentary filmmaking as an artistic practice. In 1932, he hosted the founding meeting of Group f.64 in his Oakland loft, attended by a group of photographers connected by a common belief in the superiority of “straight,” unmanipulated photography over the pictorialist fashion of the day. Group f.64 members included Edward Weston, Imogen Cunningham, and Ansel Adams, all using large format cameras to make photographs exhibiting extreme sharpness. Their images were made with small lens apertures, hence the name f. 64, producing negatives of great detail and clarity, and then contact printed.
Willard apprenticed with Edward Weston and, in 1933, traveled with Weston and Sonya Noskowiak to New Mexico on a photography expedition. His early photographs include details from industry or nature, emphasizing form, shadow, and negative space. They are graphically bold, as in his architectural series of abandoned buildings.
Thinking that photography and film could change the world, he soon shifted toward social and documentary concerns. With emotionally impactful portraits of people such as unemployed steelworkers and their families, he portrayed society during hard times.
In 1938, believing that motion pictures brought about more immediate social change, Van Dyke exclusively moved into filmmaking. He was a cameraman on Pare Lorentz’s The River. Willard Van Dyke and Ralph Steiner, through their collaboration on the film The City, earned a reputation as the fathers of documentary filmmaking. Van Dyke directed the film department at New York’s MoMA for nine years. In 1977, he returned to still photography, working in color for the first time.
Willard Van Dyke is a rare example of an artist who ascends to the top of two fields. Scheinbaum and Russek are proud of their long-standing association with him and his work.