YUKARI CHIKURA “ZAIDO” | FotoFest

 Performers walking through the snow to the shrine.

Photograph © Yukari Chikura

A shrine, hidden in an otherworldly snow landscape, dedicated to the Sun Goddess Amaterasu. It is located in an area known for its heavy snowfalls, the border between thethree prefectures of Aomori, Iwate and Akita. © Yukari Chikura

The Godaison-mai. The two wearing the golden masks are the Ōbakase and Kobakase. The chant of the Ōbakase has been passed down from generation to generation by word of mouth. Because of the sudden death of an Ōbakase a long time ago, its meaning was lost and the performer is actually only pretending to chant. © Yukari Chikura

Photograph © Yukari Chikura 

A nōshū performing mizugori (cold water ablutions) at Makanaiyado, a ritual that is currently only executed at one of the four original localities. On this day the lake in front of the house had frozen, making the task even harder. © Yukari Chikura

YUKARI CHIKURA 

ZAIDO (Dedicated to My Father…)

“My deceased father came to me in a dream. “Go to a village hidden in deep snow where I lived a long time ago,” he whispered to me. As if in a dream, I followed his instructions and boarded a train; when I disembarked at a small village, I found it covered in silvery-white snow; the landscape an otherworldly dream.” – Yukari Chikura

Following a succession of tragedies, including her father’s sudden death, her own critical injuries from an accident, and the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, Yukari Chikura set off on a pilgrimage to northeast Japan. Her father’s whispers from a dream inspired her to follow his instructions, which were to document the 1,300-year-old Japanese ritual New Year’s festivity. Described by Steidl in a soon to be published monograph, Chikura captures photographs “of snowscapes that border on abstraction with images of the intricate masks and costumes of Zaido, depicting the cultural diversity of the participants, as well as their common bond in creating collective memory and ensuring the survival of this ritual.” I am deeply taken both visually and emotionally with the metaphysical nature of these performances

Yukari Chikura, Fotofest Portfolio Reviews 2016

FotoFest invited me to select one artist whose work I found particularly compelling from my experience as a reviewer at the 2016 Meeting Place Portfolio Reviews. I selected Yukari Chikura from the many wonderful photographers I reviewed as I was most impressed with her images and their back story. Her photographs, along with the other nine photographers chosen by 2016 reviewers, will be featured in the Biennial's "Discoveries of the Meeting Place" exhibition at the Spring Street Studios in Houston from March 10 through April 22, 2018. EA  

www.fotofest.org

Artists Reception: March 20, 2018, 6-8pm 

DISCOVERIES OF THE MEETING PLACE

March 10 - April 22, 2018

Spring Street Studios

1824 Spring Street

Houston, Texas

Marina Black (Russia/Canada): Selected By Patricia Conde, Director, Patricia Conde Galería (Mexico City, Mexico)

Jinhyun Cha (South Korea): Selected By Elda Harrington and Silvia Mangialardi, Encuentros Abiertos (Buenos Aires, Argentina)

Yukari Chikura (Japan): Selected By Elizabeth Avedon (New York, USA), Independent Curator  

Debi Cornwall (USA): Selected By Duan Yuting, Founder and Director, Lianzhou Foto, (Guangzhou, China)

Kirk Crippens + Gretchen LeMaistre (USA): Selected By Maarten Schilt, Founder and Director, Schilt Publishing & Gallery (Amsterdam, Netherlands)

David Fathi (France): Selected By Louise Clements, Artistic Director, Quad; and Director, Format International Photography Festival (Derby, United Kingdom)

Thomas Holton (USA): Selected By Jae-Hyun Seok, Independent Curator and Professor at Daegu Mirae College (Daegu, South Korea)

Priya Kambli (India/USA): Selected By Dan Leers, Curator of Photography, Carnegie Museum of Art (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA)

Elaine Ling (China/Canada): Selected By Xavier Soule, Owner & President, Galerie VU' & Agence VU' (Paris, France)

Dylan Vitone (USA): Selected By Malcolm Daniel, Gus And Lyndall Wortham Curator Of Photography, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (Houston, Texas, USA)

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www.fotofest2018.art

Alongside the FotoFest 2018 Biennial's central exhibition, INDIA/Contemporary Photographic and New Media Art,FotoFest sponsors the popular Discoveries of the Meeting Place, an exhibition that originates from the FotoFest International Meeting Place Portfolio Review for Artists. FotoFest invited ten reviewers to select artists whose work was an interesting discovery from their experience at the 2016 Meeting Place Portfolio Reviews. These artists are featured in the Biennial's Discoveries of the Meeting Place exhibition. The Meeting Place has established itself as a launching pad for the careers of artists, and these Discoveries are among its most successful, finding opportunities for exhibition, publication, and sales across the globe as a result of the portfolio reviews. FotoFest is proud to highlight this group of artists as a testament to their success. 

FOTOFEST BIENNIAL 2016: Portfolio Reviews Founders and Reviewers

FotoFest Co-Founders, Wendy Watriss and Frederick Baldwin

 Photographer Rania Matar with Marta Sanchez Philippe, 

FotoFest Projects Coordinator

 Reviewers Robert Morton, Robert Morton Books

and James Estrin, The New York Times LENS

 Christopher Rauschenberg, Blue Sky Gallery, Portland; 

Reviewee; Ricardo Viera, Lehigh University Art Gallery; 

Itala Schmelz, Centro de la Imagen, Mexico City

 Texas Art-Insider, Clint Willour, The Galveston Art Center

Roy Flukinger, Harry Ransom Center, Austin; 

Geoffrey Koslov, Foto Relevance LLP, Houston

 Debra Klomp Ching, Klompching Gallery, Brooklyn;

Geoffrey Koslov, Founder, Foto Relevance LLP, Houston

Rixon Reed and Vicky Bohannon,  

photo-eye Bookstore, Santa Fe, NM at FotoFest

"Over its 30-year history, FotoFest’s Meeting Place Portfolio Reviewshave been a launching pad for the careers of hundreds of photographic artists. Many artists have been discovered by this program and many reviewers have found new talent to exhibit, publish, collect, and represent. In 2016, FotoFest brings 165 international, professional reviewers to meet one-on-one with registered artists. They include museum curators, editors, publishers, gallerists, collectors, and photo agency representatives to review the work of 450 registered artists." (FotoFest)

I was honored to be one of the almost 50 Reviewers for the 1st of 4 Sessions for FotoFest’s Portfolio Reviews from March 12–April 24th. These are snapshots of a few of my colleagues during our short breaks. A complete list of Reviewers here.

READ MORE HERE

L'Oeil de la Photographie

ARTHUR MEYERSON: The Color of Light

 

"The Color of Light"

 Front Cover: Red Hat, Wyoming

Buy The Book Here

Red Car, Blue Interior

"An Arthur Meyerson image is both original and classic. There is no more winning combination. Looking at his photographs one feels they have entered a world more beautiful than any they could have imagined" – Amy Arbus. Photographer, New York

 The Palio, Italy

"Powerful, elegant photographs by one of the most respected photographers working today. The world according to Arthur Meyerson, is one f enchanting color, deep beautiful, humor and hope." – Keith Carter, Photographer. Beaumont, Texas

 Blue Suede Shoes Salook, Memphis

 "Why in God's name would anyone believe anything good I say about Arthur Meyerson? After all, everyone knows he's one of my best friends. – Jay Maisel, Photographer

Exhibition: Colorful and exotic locales captured by award winning photographer, Arthur Meyerson on his photographic journeys to all seven continents. 

JOURNEYS: Photography by Arthur Myerson

The Grace Museum, Abilene, Texas

Now through February 18, 2014

"The Color of Light"

Buy The Book Here

PATRICIA P. PERINI-LONG: Life Story

(l to r) Elizabeth P. Avedon, neighbor Texas Wagstaff and Pat P. Perini. Bar-B-Q celebrating Richard Avedon's exhibition "In The American West" at the Amon Carter Museum. Perini Ranch, Buffalo Gap, Texas, 1985.

Patricia Perini-Long with looka-like daughter, 

Dallas Gourmet Chef Elizabeth Perini

Patricia P. Perini-Long, July 6, 1944 - February 21, 2013

New York, Houston, Dallas, Napa Valley, St. Helena

Unfortunately my sister, Pat, an extremely accomplished person, passed on to broader skies this month. In her 30 year career as a production executive, producer, director and writer, she created many award-winning PBS programs. These include: the four hour film documentary LBJ, which she developed and executive produced for PBS' The American Experience (two Emmy nominations, duPont-Columbia Broadcast Journalism Award, Ohio State Award); The West of the Imagination,  six hour documentary series on the American West as told through the eyes of its artists, which she developed based on the work of Pulitzer Prize winning historian William H. Goetzmann (Best History Program, American Film and Video Festival); Katherine Anne Porter: The Eye of Memory, a 90-minute special for the PBS series American Masters; The Fig Tree, a dramatization of Ms. Porter's short story for the WonderWorks series; Facing Evil with Bill Moyers, a 90-minute documentary; The Aspern Papers, a new American opera, based on Henry James' story, for the Great Performances series; and three specials on the quadrennial Van Cliburn International Piano Competition (Emmy Award). She was production executive of the feature film The Killing Floor and Mark Twain's 'The Diaries of Adam and Eve' for American Playhouse; Strokes of Genius, a series profiling five American Abstract Expressionist artists; and the original 26-part series With Ossie and Ruby, a showcase for multicultural performances, starring Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee.

Pat also produced self-help, medical and health programming.  Her credits include: the acclaimed two-hour special Straight Talk on Menopause; its two-part sequel, More Straight Talk on Menopause and Women’s Health; the 90 minute special, Straight Talk on Prostate Health; the one-hour special, A Conversation with Thomas Moore, best-selling author of Care of the Soul and Soul Mates; Parenting for Today - Who's in Charge?; the 26-part medical series Life Matters, the 10-part Good Health from Jane Brody's Kitchen, and the one hour special The National Nutrition Quiz.  She brought to PBS two programs on personal security with Chicago Detective J.J. Bittenbinder:  Street Smarts:  How to be a Tough Target and Street Smarts: Straight Talk for Kids, Teens and Parents.

In the area of public affairs programming, Pat negotiated and executive produced The Texas Debates, two of the first nationally-televised Presidential debates (Republican and Democrat) for the 1988 Presidential primaries; The Making of a Speaker, a documentary on former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and former Texas Congressman Jim Wright; Locked Out of the American Dream, a documentary on America's affordable housing crisis; and The Other Side of the Border, a documentary on immigration from Mexico.

Pat served on all major PBS advisory committees on programming, marketing and promotion and was a founding member of the Great Performances Alliance, which managed the selection of programs for PBS' acclaimed performing arts showcase series, and Public Television's Latino Consortium Board. She served on advisory committees and review panels of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Prime Time Emmys, and chaired the Media Panel of The Texas Commission for the Arts. As producer, she spearheaded many media projects which were awarded funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, National Endowment for the Arts, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Pat joined Dallas PBS station KERA-TV in 1969 as promotion director to launch Newsroom, an alternative news program created by Jim Lehrer, who was then beginning his television career. Ms. Perini rose within KERA to senior vice president of programming and executive producer of national programming, and led KERA to recognition as an award-winning national producer for PBS. As of 1992,  she worked as an independent video producer.

In 1985, she met her second husband, Robert Long, owner of Long Vineyards Winery, while producing a program on wine for PBS. She moved to the beautiful Long estate overlooking Lake Hennessey in 1987 and balanced her time as a devoted partner in the business of Long Vineyards, a video producer-director-writer and an active participant in local community service. She chaired the Editorial Committee of the Napa Valley Vintners Wine Auction, served on the board of the Napa Valley Opera House Theatre, and as vice president of the boards of Napa Valley Community Health Clinic Olé, which provides health care to Napa’s wine workers, and Music In The Vineyards, a summer chamber music festival held every August. Her video, ‘Coming of Age: Napa Valley,’ commissioned by COPIA-The American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts, documents the cultural and historic contexts of Napa Valley wines.

Born in New York City, raised in the Memorial area of Houston, Texas, Pat out shined us all with a Master of Arts from Johns Hopkins University and a Bachelor of Arts Degree (History and Literature major, Phi Alpha Theta Honorary History Fraternity) from the University of Texas. She is survived by her husband, Napa Valley vintner Robert Long, and her daughter, Dallas Gourmet Chef Elizabeth Perini; and across continents and coast to coast, cousins, nieces, nephews, women's groups, close friends and colleagues. 

Her daughter Elizabeth said it best, "She was amazing!"
 
In lieu of flowers, a donation can be made to Clinic Ole in St. Helena, which provides health care to Napa’s wine workers.

BILLY GIBBONS + THE MOVING SIDEWALKS: Home Town Band Plays NYC

Jimi Hendrix with The Moving Sidewalks

Fort Worth, Texas, 1968

(left to right): Keyboardist Tom Moore, Jimi Hendrix, Bassist Don Summers, guitarist and lead singer Billy Gibbons (pre-ZZ Top), and drummer Dan Mitchell. Photographer unknown.
 

 

ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons pulls up to my house

Houston, Texas, 1973  

Photograph © Elizabeth Paul Avedon 

 

 

When the Moving Sidewalks opened for The Doors at the Houston Coliseum in 1968, their hit single 99th Floor was No. 1. It became one of the most famous Vintage Garage 45's.

BILLY GIBBONS, pre-ZZ Top fame, founded the '60's blues-based, psychedelic rock ‘n’ roll group, The Moving Sidewalks. They came into prominence opening for The Jimi Hendrix Experience during Hendrix's first American tour. Billy was still in high school when Hendrix, one of the greatest electric guitarist in rock history, named Gibbons his favorite guitar player on "The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson". Billy went on to ZZ Top fame (Sharp Dressed Man, Legs...).

In a recent New York Times 'ArtsBeat' piece, "The Return of The Moving Sidewalks," Allan Kozinn writes, "Before ZZ Top became a blues-rock band known for gritty, boogie-based rhythms, sizzling guitar flights, humorous lyrics and luxuriously long beards, it was a Houston-based psychedelic proto-punk garage band called the Moving Sidewalks. And though its following was decidedly regional at the time – its biggest hit, “99th Floor,” was a chart-topper in Houston for six weeks in 1967 – the group’s recordings can be found on more than half a dozen compilations of 1960s garage band tracks, not to mention the ZZ Top anthology “Chrome, Smoke & BBQ: The ZZ Top Box.”

"The group recently released an archival trove, “Moving Sidewalks – The Complete Collection” (Rockbeat Records), bringing together its only album, “Flash” (1969), a handful of singles (including a bruising cover of the Beatles’ “I Want to Hold Your Hand”) and several outtakes. With ZZ Top between tours, Billy Gibbons, the guitarist and founder of both bands, has reconvened the Moving Sidewalks for a gig – its first in 44 years – at B.B. King Blues Club and Grill in Manhattan on March 30."  (read the entire NY Times piece here)

The Moving Sidewalks Play

B.B. King Blues Club and Grill in Manhattan
March 30, 2013

 Former producer and co-writer Steve Ames and his '66 Corvette

Photograph © Elizabeth Paul Avedon  

 Drummer Dan Mitchell and his Jaguar XK-E, 1967

Photograph © Elizabeth Paul Avedon  

Keyboardist Tom Moore, 1966

NY Times: The Return of Moving Sidewalks

SUZANNE PAUL: A Moment in Houston

Dick Wray Abstract Expressionist Artist
Photograph © Estate of Suzanne Paul

Edward Albee, 1999 Playwright
Photograph © Estate of Suzanne Paul

Angelbert Metoyer Contemporary Artist
Photograph © Estate of Suzanne Paul

A Moment in Houston / Photographs by Suzanne Paul
Installation photograph by Theresa Escobedo, Deborah Colton Gallery

Walter Hopps Director, Menil Collection
Photograph © Estate of Suzanne Paul

The late Walter Hopps [legendary Founding Director of the Menil Collection, Houston, Texas] stated, "Suzanne Paul should be recognized as one of the finest photographers to come out of Houston. Her essential medium is black and white photography, and her most important subject matter is portraiture. Not all photographers are skilled printers of their work. Paul is a superb printer achieving areas of deep black in line with her instinct for the chiaroscuro lighting of the subject. Having been the subject of one of Paul's portraits, I have experienced the directness and honesty of her work. She has caught an unidealized view of who I am."

La Lettre de la Photographie 4.2.2012

View Portfolio on La Lettre

There is a belief in many cultures that the camera is capable of stealing the human soul or spirit. Suzanne Paul's camera may not steal the soul, but it certainly captures it and the spirit within. – Clint Willour, Collector and Director of the Galveston Arts Center

The late Suzanne deYoung Paul (b. 1945 - d. 2005), a pioneer female photographer in Houston, was best known for her intuitive portraits of the art world. Being the first female photographer to have a solo exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, and many other prestigious exhibitions including The Fort Worth Art Museum, Galveston Arts Center, private galleries and museums, Paul became known for her portraits of such well known artists as Julian Schnabel, Mel Chin, Andy Warhol and playwright Edward Albee. In addition she photographed Houston curators and patrons such as Walter Hopps, Anne Wilkes Tucker, Jim Harithas, Alison De Lima Greene, Alfred Glassell and Edward Mayo. Several of her photographs are in the Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston.

FotoFest and the Deborah Colton Gallery present an exhibition of portraits by Suzanne Paul “A Moment in Houston” that include twelve gelatin silver prints. "Suzanne Paul left us with a compelling visual documentation of our City’s art history and in doing so, of humanity itself."– Deborah Colton

FotoFest 2012 Exhibitions
Deborah Colton Gallery, Houston

Suzanne Paul: A Moment in Houston
Focus on Russia I, Olga Tobreluts; Focus on Russia II, Oleg Dou
Jonas Mekas, Contemporary Photographers from China
and Jay Rusovich to April 28, 2012

Special thanks to

La Lettre de la Photographie 4.2.2012
Clint Willour • Deborah Colton Gallery
Sean Perry Photographs
Theresa Escobedo • Susan May Tell

ANNE WILKES TUCKER: Curator of Photography The Museum of Fine Arts Houston

Portrait of Anne Tucker. Todd France/ Photo: © MFAH
La Lettre de la Photographie: Interview With Anne Wilkes Tucker

Anne Wilkes Tucker by Elizabeth Avedon
Coup de Coeur La Lettre de la Photographie

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Anne Wilkes Tucker was named “America’s Best Curator,” by Time Magazine a decade ago. Tucker, the Gus and Lyndall Wortham Curator of Photography at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, may now be one of the foremost Curator’s of Photography in the world. Thanks to her curatorial wisdom, curiosity and scholarly research, she has built the Museum of Fine Arts Houston Photography Collection from virtually no photographs when she started in 1976, to one of the finest collections in the world. With over 26,000 images, including masters Andre Kertesz, Josef Sudek, Edward Steichen, Robert Frank and Diane Arbus, Tucker has also had the foresight to collect many lesser known international and emerging artists on the cusp of success whose careers have since taken off in the public eye.

This week, the first large-scale U.S. exhibition of Helmut Newton’s photographs will premiere at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston on July 3rd. The exhibition features the entire contents from Helmut Newton´s first three groundbreaking books: White Women (1976), Sleepless Nights (1978), and Big Nudes (1981). I spoke with Ms. Tucker just before she began hanging the upcoming Newton show.

Elizabeth Avedon: How did the Helmut Newton show originate?

Anne Wilkes Tucker: The Museum has a very close working relationship with Manfred Heiting. We purchased his Collection of photographs in 2002 and have continued to work with him since then. Heiting and Helmut Newton were close friends. In discussion with Helmut’s wife, June Newton, June came up with the idea of showing all the photographs in Newton’s first three books, which were really the beginning of his fame in the photo world. He had certainly been a fashion photographer before that, but White Women, Sleepless Nights and Big Nudes really cemented his influence and status, so that’s what we are showing. Manfred had organized a big show of Newton’s work in Berlin before that traveled all over Europe, but Newton had never really had a large show of his work in the U.S. ICP had had a smaller show, but this will be the first major exhibition of his work. Of the two hundred and six photographs in this show, some of them are very large at 6.5’ x 4.75’ feet. It will be a very full exhibition.

EA: What Newton images stand out for you in this exhibition?

Anne Wilkes Tucker: One of the things I thought was interesting that I enjoyed learning when I did the research for my essay in the show, was how Newton, not always, but frequently took the setting and models from a fashion shoot, and then after he’d done the work for the magazine, either disrobed the model or altered the dress, like slit it all the way up to the hip or something, how the boundary between those two lines kept shifting for him. Less in Big Nudes, as Big Nudes was a specific project that he did not for the fashion magazines, but something he conceived and carried out. But for Sleepless Nights and White Women they would sometimes start as fashion and he would take photographs for himself out of the same material, and how he redirected one in one direction, and one in the other, but knowing it’s market. (read more)

Beaumont Newhall, Hollis Frampton, Estelle Jussim, John Szarkowski, Anne Wilkes Tucker and Peter Bunnell: panelists for Ruth K. Shartle Memorial Symposium, October 26–28, 1979. Courtesy of The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

EA: What was your professional history before the Museum of Fine Arts Houston?

Anne Wilkes Tucker: I majored in art history in college. I got interested in photography, so I was the photographer for the yearbook and the newspaper in college, and then got a second undergraduate degree as a photographer at the Rochester Institute of Technology. I didn’t think I was a very good photographer when I got around other photographers, so I moved across town where Nathan Lyons was beginning what became the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester. I got an MFA in photo history studying with Nathan and Beaumont Newhall at the George Eastman House (Newhall founded the Photography Department at the Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1935; and was Curator and Director of the International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House, Rochester), and then I had an internship at the Modern (MoMA, the Museum of Modern Art) working with John Szarkowski and Peter Bunnell, so I was really lucky. And in the summers I was in graduate school, I worked in the Gernsheim Collection at the University of Texas. So in a very short period of time, I had access to the Collections at the Eastman House, at the Museum of Modern Art, and at the Gernsheim Collection. I really had an extraordinary exposure to the history of photography in those three Collections.

EA: In creating the Museum of Fine Arts Houston Photography Collection, were you influenced by your work with Newhall, who built the early MoMA Photography Collection?

Anne Wilkes Tucker: You just can’t separate the influence of Beaumont, Nathan and John. I learned such different approaches from all three. Beaumont was the historian. There’s so much more written about photography now than there was then. Back then it was a matter of spending hours and hours and hours going through original documents just to track down people. I learned from Beaumont how to do that and to organize it coherently and think about it and place it in context.

John, who was certainly one of the great writers, was not a researcher, he was not an historian the way Beaumont was, but John was such a disciplined thinker and he had such clear ideas about what was and what was not a photographer, or good photography.

Nathan was much more willing to look at a broad range of expressions in photography and embrace them. The kinds of shows that Nathan did were much more varied and much more universal than the kind of photographers that John embraced, so in a way working for the three of them so early forced me to find my own path. (read more)

Two of Tucker's over 40 books and essays

(left) Robert Frank: New York to Nova Scotia. (Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and New York Graphic Society books/Little, Brown and Co, 1986). Editor: Anne Tucker. Associate Editor: Phillip Brookman. (right) Louis Faurer. (Merrell Publishers in association with The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 2002). Authors: Anne Wilkes Tucker with Lisa Hostetler and Kathleen V. Jameson

EA: How did your Robert Frank Exhibition in 1986 come about?

Anne Wilkes Tucker: In 1983-84 we were able to make some rather extraordinary acquisitions. We purchased Bill Larson’s Collection of Maholy-Nagy, and we purchased a private Collection of work around the Bauhaus, and we purchased the Collection of John Heartfield AIZ Magazines, and we purchased the complete set of Robert Frank’s The Americans. Part of the agreement with Robert Frank was in purchasing The Americans we’d be able to do a show. Robert asked I do the show with Philip Brookman, which I was happy to do, that began a friendship that continues today. He’s the Chief Curator at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. now. That show, and the film we did on Robert too, all came out of being able to purchase the set of The Americans. (read more)

Dr. Peter Marzio, Director of MFAH 1982-2010
Courtesy of The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Audrey Jones Beck Building, North & West Facades. Architect: José Rafael Moneo. Photo: © MFAH

Anne Wilkes Tucker: Two things I would add. If I’m going to talk about mentors, and I’ve mentioned John and Nathan, I really have to mention Peter Marzio, who was my Director from 1982 to last Fall 2010 when he died suddenly.

When he came in 1982, the endowment was one million dollars, and when he died, the endowment was one billion. And that doesn’t include building two new buildings, finishing the Cullen Sculpture Garden (designed by Isamu Noguchi), all the art we bought, or all the exhibitions that we did. So if I’m going to mention mentors, I’m going to mention Peter, because he was major. He understood the importance of Photography to the 20th century. He was just so supportive, there is no way I could have done research on Brassai for four years and research on Japanese Photography for five years without the generous support of the Museum. I got the credit, but he’s the one who stood behind us all and made it possible. He understood and he got it.

I had plenty of invitations to leave the Museum, but I always told Peter, “You stay, I’ll stay,” because he was such an extraordinary man and visionary Director, incredibly supportive of his staff and of all of us in terms of staying with us. Some of these projects had really up and down rides, not all of them came easily, and Peter stayed with us. If we were in it for the haul, then he was in it for the haul. He was such a brilliant man that he was really great to go to when you were struggling conceptually with something, to bounce ideas off of him.

The other was Director here, William Agee. Bill was the one who hired me. The delightful part is he was so supportive of photography. He grew up next door to Barbara Morgan (American photographer and co-founder of Aperture Magazine) and had seen photographs on the wall, and knew people who regarded themselves as artists who were photographers, from his early age. Before he came here, Bill was at the Pasadena Museum of Art where he also acquired photography.

Both men were wonderful; it’s just that Peter was here so much longer. –La Lettre de la Photographie

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The Museum of Fine Arts Houston
Helmut Newton: White Women • Sleepless Nights • Big Nudes
July 3, 2011 – Sep 25, 2011