Lida Moser
{{Short description|American-born photographer and author}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Lida Moser
| image =
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| birth_date = {{birth date|1920|8|17|mf=y}}
| birth_place = New York City
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2014|8|11|1920|8|17}}
| death_place = Rockville, Maryland
| education =
| alma_mater =
| occupation = Photographer, author
| years_active = 1947–2014
| employer =
| known_for = photojournalism, portraiture, fashion, experimental, street photography
| notable_works = Judy and the Boys, 1961
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}}
Lida Moser (August 17, 1920 – August 11, 2014) was an American-born photographer and author, with a career that spanned more than six decades, before retiring in her 90s. She was known for her photojournalism and street photography as a member of both the Photo League{{cite web |url=http://www.higherpictures.com/artists/Women_of_the_Photo_League/Works.aspx?s=190 |title=HIGHER PICTURES >> Artists >> Women of the Photo League >> Lida Moser |accessdate=2012-09-27 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120103043632/http://www.higherpictures.com/artists/Women_of_the_Photo_League/Works.aspx?s=190 |archivedate=2012-01-03 }} | Women of the Photo League and the New York School. Her portfolio includes black and white commercial, portrait, landscape, experimental, abstract, and documentary photography, with her work continuing to have an impact.
The Photo League was an early center of American documentary photography in the post war years, with membership including many of the most significant photographers of the 20th century. In a retrospective at the Fraser Gallery in Washington DC, she was described as a pioneer in the field of photojournalism,{{cite web|url=http://www.thefrasergallery.com/reviews/LidaMoserWCP2005.html |title=Lida Moser: Fifty Years of Photographs|first=Louis |last=Jacobson |date=April 8, 2005 |work=Washington City Paper |accessdate=2012-09-21}} and The New York Times noted that she "excelled at photojournalism at a time when women were a rarity in the field."{{Cite news|last=Slotnik|first=Daniel E.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/03/arts/lida-moser-photographer-with-an-urban-eye-dies-at-93.html|title=Lida Moser, Photographer With an Urban Eye, Dies at 93|date=September 2, 2014|work=The New York Times|access-date=2020-04-15|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}} She has been also described, much to Moser's annoyance,{{cite web | last=Cauterucci | first=Christina | title=Why Photographer Lida Moser Couldn't Be Pigeonholed | website=Washington City Paper | date=August 15, 2014 | url=http://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/405598/why-photographer-lida-moser-couldnt-be-pigeonholed/}} as the "grandmother of American photojournalism."{{Cite web|url=https://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/arts/article/13028481/photographic-memories|title=Photographic Memories|last=Summers-Sparks|first=Matthew|date=February 20, 2004|website=Washington City Paper}}
Career
Moser was born in 1920 in New York City.{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/lida-moser-photographer-of-new-york-and-beyond-dies-at-93/2014/08/30/ea3fb98a-2ec3-11e4-9b98-848790384093_story.html|title=Lida Moser, photographer of New York and beyond, dies at 93|author=Emily Langer|date=August 30, 2014|newspaper=The Washington Post|accessdate=March 25, 2019}}{{cite web|last=Moser|first=Lidia|title=United States Public Records Index|url=https://familysearch.org|publisher=Family Search|accessdate=October 28, 2013}} Her career started in 1947 as an assistant in Berenice Abbott's studio.{{Cite news|url=https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/photojournalist-made-her-mark-in-quebec/|title=Photojournalist made her mark in Quebec|last=Lalonde|first=Michelle|date=April 14, 2014|newspaper=The Montreal Gazette}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/lida-moser-photographer-who-recorded-the-grittiness-of-everyday-life-in-her-native-new-york-for-more-9760916.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220614/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/lida-moser-photographer-who-recorded-the-grittiness-of-everyday-life-in-her-native-new-york-for-more-9760916.html |archive-date=2022-06-14 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Lida Moser: Photographer who recorded the grittiness of everyday life|date=September 28, 2014|website=The Independent|language=en|access-date=2020-04-16}} She then earned her first assignment from Vogue in 1949, traveling to Scotland and then across Canada. Other magazines subsequently featuring her work included Harper's Bazaar, Look, Esquire, and others. She authored a number of books of her own work, and co-authored several photographic technique books. Articles and ongoing columns appeared also in the New York Times, New York Sunday Times, Amphoto Guide to Special Effects, Fun in Photography, Career Photography, Women See Men, Women of Vision and This Was the Photo League, among others.
Moser's series of "Camera View" articles on photography for The New York Times appeared between 1974 and 1981.{{Cite news |title=A Photographer's Guide to Cooperative Galleries – Lida Moser |author= |newspaper=New York Times |date=October 17, 1976 |url= https://www.nytimes.com/1976/10/17/archives/a-photographers-guide-to-cooperative-galleries-cooperative.html}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.artforum.com/news/lida-moser-1920-2014-48110|title=Lida Moser (1920–2014)|website=www.artforum.com|date=September 3, 2014 |language=en-US|access-date=2020-04-15}} Her photography has fetched as much as $4,000 at Christie's and other auctions{{cite web|url=http://www.artnet.com/artists/lida-moser/past-auction-results|title=Past Auction Results for Lida Moser|website=Artnet.com|accessdate=March 25, 2019}} and continues to be collected and displayed by more than 40 museums worldwide.{{cite web|url=https://www.nationalgalleries.org/search?search=Lida%20Moser|title=Artworks, 115 artworks, Lida Moser|website=National Galleries Scotland|accessdate=March 25, 2019}} Moser's relationship to French photographer Eugène Atget can be seen in her photographs of Edinburgh as an early influence and that of American photographer Walker Evans.
Moser was a close friend of American artist Alice Neel, and she photographed Neel several times;{{Cite web|url=https://bangordailynews.com/2014/09/02/living/noted-photographer-lida-moser-dies-at-93/|title=Noted photographer Lida Moser dies at 93|website=Bangor Daily News|date=September 2, 2014 |language=en-US|access-date=2020-04-15}} in return Neel painted multiple portraits of Moser, which now hang is several museums in the U.S.{{Cite web|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/484558|title=Lida Moser 1963, Alice Neel|website=www.metmuseum.org|access-date=2019-02-13}}{{Cite web|url=https://wsimag.com/art/53702-neel-slash-picasso|title=Neel / Picasso|date=May 8, 2019|website=Wall Street International|language=en|access-date=2020-04-16}}
= Scotland =
In 1949 Moser was assigned by Vogue magazine to travel to Scotland and photograph Scottish writers and artists. Over 100 of those photographs are now in the permanent collection of The National Galleries of Scotland.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/artists/lida-moser|title=Artworks – Lida Moser Search|last=|first=|date=|website=National Galleries of Scotland|access-date=2020-04-16}}
= Canada =
Vogue was so pleased with the result of Moser's work in Scotland, that a year later, in 1950, they assigned the young photographer an even more ambitious task: to visit the Canadian province of Quebec and deliver a photographic essay on Quebec.{{Cite web|url=https://www.westmountmag.ca/lida-moser/|title=Lida Moser's homage to "la belle province"|date=April 8, 2018|website=Westmount Magazine|language=en-US|access-date=2020-04-16}} During the summer of that year, "Moser travelled all along the St. Laurence River, from Montreal to Quebec City, then on to Charlevoix, the lower Saint-Lawrence and the Gaspé peninsula." She then returned later in 1950, this time under assignment by Look magazine, to photograph "the inhabitants – everyday people, children, artists, storytellers, actors, lovers and more." A documentary of her Canadian travels and photographs was written and directed by Joyce Borenstein, and was released in 2017 under the title Lida Moser Photographer: Odyssey in Black and White.{{citation needed|date=April 2023}}
= Judy and the Boys =
File:Judy and the Boys 1961.jpg
According to The New York Times, "Perhaps her most famous photograph, "Mimicry (Judy and the Boys)" (1961), began as a shoot for an aspiring model. Ms. Moser had posed her in front of a Greenwich Village garage when some neighborhood children demanded to be in the picture, then they began mimicking the model's poses. The model responded with a crude gesture, captured by Ms. Moser." In discussing the same photograph, The Washington City Paper wrote: "The piece typifies Moser’s work: It captures a moment in which people have let their guard down and are acting genuinely, features details of a long-vanished New York, and clearly displays the empathy Moser felt toward her subjects." The Library of Congress purchased one of the original vintage prints in 1998."
= New York =
As a New Yorker most of her life, Moser photographed her city continuously for several decades. Her New York City photographs are an example of the variety and diversity of subjects that characterized Moser's work throughout her life; it includes dynamic portraits of the people of New York: prostitutes of both sexes, firefighters, police, street hustlers, tourists, actors, tourists, musicians, composers, celebrities, etc. They include portraits of Leonard Bernstein, Charles Mingus, Judy Collins, Alexey Brodovitch, John Koch, Yousuf Karsh, and many others. It also includes hundreds of photographs of daily New York life, its frenetic pace, traffic, parks, and buildings. Moser also carefully documented the 1970s tear-down of the neighborhood where the World Trade Center was eventually erected as well as the construction of the Center itself.
= Later life =
Moser spent the last decades of her life in Rockville, Maryland and had several solo shows in the last few years of her life in the Washington, DC area, all of which were well received by both art critics, collectors, and museum curators. She died on August 11, 2014, in Rockville, Maryland, six days shy of her 94th birthday.{{cite web|url=http://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelles/arts_et_spectacles/2014/08/13/009-deces-de-la-photographe-lida-moser.shtml|title=Deces de Lida Moser photographe du Quebic desannees 1950|year=2014|author=Sophie Cazenave|website=Radio Canada|access-date=March 25, 2019}} A large retrospective of her photographs was organized by Dickinson College in 2018, with the Smithsonian Institution loaning the college roughly 500 Moser prints.{{Cite web|url=https://www.dickinson.edu/news/article/3049/student-curated_exhibition_highlights_lida_mosers_multidimensional_work|title=Student-Curated Exhibition Highlights Lida Moser's Multidimensional Work|last=Jackson|first=MaryAlice Bitts|website=www.dickinson.edu|language=en|access-date=2020-04-16}}
Publications
- Earthman, Come Home (1966)
- A Life For the Stars (Cities in Flight, 2) (Avon SF, G1280) (1968)
- Construction of the Exxon Building, New York (1971)
- Fun in Photography, Amphoto U.S. (1974) {{ISBN|978-0-8174-056-49}}
- Amphoto Guide to Special Effects, Watson-Guptill Pubns (1980) {{ISBN|978-0-8174-352-40}}
- Photography Contests: How to Enter, How to Win, Amphoto U.S. (1981) {{ISBN|978-0-8174-244-59}}
- Grants in Photography: How to Get Them (1979) {{ISBN|978-0-8174-244-59}}
- Quebec a l'ete 1950 Libre Expression, French edition (1982) {{ISBN|978-2-8911-111-02}}
- Career Photography: How to Be a Success As a Professional Photographer, Prentice Hall (1983){{ISBN|978-0-13115-11-30}}{{cite news |url=https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html |title=Lida Moser Amazon Bibliography |work=Amazon.com | date=October 17, 1976}}
Significant works
- 1949 "Queen's Parade, Edinburgh, Scotland"
- 1949 "John Boyd Orr, Baron Boyd Orr"{{Cite web|url=https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw09875/John-Boyd-Orr-Baron-Boyd-Orr|title=John Boyd Orr, Baron Boyd Orr – National Portrait Gallery|website=www.npg.org.uk|language=en|access-date=2019-02-13}}
- 1949 "Douglas Young"{{Cite web|url=https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw09876/Douglas-Young|title=Douglas Young – National Portrait Gallery|website=www.npg.org.uk|language=en|access-date=2019-02-13}}
- 1949 "Stanley Cursiter"{{Cite web|url=https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/artists/lida-moser|title=Lida Moser {{!}} National Galleries of Scotland|website=www.nationalgalleries.org|language=en|access-date=2019-02-13}}
- 1949 "Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh Tapestry Company"{{Cite web|url=https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/10141/dovecot-studios-edinburgh-tapestry-company-ronnie-mcvinnie-john-loufit-fred-marin-richard-gordon|title=Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh Tapestry Company (Ronnie McVinnie, John Loufit, Fred Marin, Richard Gordon, Alec Jack, Ian Inglis, Archie Brennan,...|website=National Galleries of Scotland|language=en|access-date=2019-02-13}}
- 1950 "Farm Girls, Valley of the Matapedia, Quebec"
- 1950 "Two students of Quebec City's Ecole Moderne pose with sculptures"{{Cite web|url=http://theconcordian.com/2016/02/the-1950s-in-quebec-through-the-eyes-of-lida-moser/|title=The 1950s in Quebec through the eyes of Lida Moser|date=February 2, 2016|website=The Concordian|language=en-CA|access-date=2019-02-13}}
- 1961 "Judy and the Boys"{{Cite web|url=http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/98517055/|title=Mimicry (Judy and the boys)|last=Moser|first=Lida|date=1961|website=www.loc.gov|language=en|access-date=2019-02-13}}
- 1965 "Office Bldg. Lobby, New York"
- 1968 "Cops, Times Square, New York"
- 1971 "Construction of the Exxon Building, New York'{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62979-2005Mar24.html |title=Lida Moser At Her Finest|newspaper=The Washington Post |accessdate=2012-09-21 |first=Michael |last=O'Sullivan |date=March 25, 2005}}
Collections
Moser's work is in the following permanent collections:
- Museum of Modern Art, New York City{{Cite web|url=https://www.moma.org/artists/49613|title=Lida Moser {{!}} MoMA|website=The Museum of Modern Art|language=en|access-date=2019-02-13}}
- A portrait of Moser, by painter Alice Neel, is in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.{{Cite web|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/484558|title=Lida Moser 1963, Alice Neel| website=www.metmuseum.org|access-date=2019-02-13}}
- Corcoran Gallery, Washington, DC{{cn|date=May 2024}}
- Phillips Collection, Washington, DC
- Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec, Quebec, Canada{{Cite web|url=http://lidamoser.mnbaq.org/|title=Le québec de Lida Moser|last=|first=|date=|website=Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec|access-date=2020-04-15}}{{Cite web|url=http://lidamoser.mnbaq.org/biographie/|title=La photographe Lida Moser • Le québec de Lida Moser|website=Le québec de Lida Moser|language=fr|access-date=2020-04-15}}{{Cite web|url=http://theconcordian.com/2016/02/the-1950s-in-quebec-through-the-eyes-of-lida-moser/|title=The 1950s in Quebec through the eyes of Lida Moser|last=Sachet|first=Ambre|date=February 2, 2016|website=The Concordian}}
- Library of Congress, Washington, DC{{Cite web|url=https://www.loc.gov/photos/?q=lida+moser|title=Search results for Photo, Print, Drawing, Lida Moser, Available Online|website=Library of Congress|access-date=2020-04-15}}
- Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa, Canada{{Cite web|url=https://www.canada.ca/en/news/archive/2015/05/something-old-something-new-access-heart-lac-mandate.html|title=Something old, something new: access and the heart of LAC's mandate|last=Canada|first=Service|date=May 12, 2015|website=gcnws|access-date=2020-04-16}}
- National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland
- National Portrait Gallery, London, United Kingdom{{cite web|url=http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp08538/lida-moser |title=Search the Collection Lida Moser (1920–2014)|website= National Portrait Gallery London|access-date=March 25, 2019}}
- National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC{{Cite web|url=https://npg.si.edu/object/npg_NPG.2016.134|title=Judy Collins|website=npg.si.edu|language=en|access-date=2020-04-15}}
- New York Historical Society, New York{{Cite web|url=http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/nyhs/moser/|title=Guide to the Lida Moser Photograph Collection New York Historical Society|website=dlib.nyu.edu|access-date=2018-12-19}}
- Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC{{Cite web|url=http://collections.si.edu/search/results.htm?q=lida%20moser|title=Collections Search Center, Smithsonian Institution|website=collections.si.edu|access-date=2018-12-19}}
- Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas{{Cite web|url=https://emuseum.mfah.org/objects/26917/aaron-siskind|title=Aaron Siskind Photograph by Lida Moser|last=|first=|date=|website=The Museum of Fine Arts Houston|access-date=2020-04-15}}
- Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas{{Cite web|url=https://crystalbridges.org/blog/womens-history-month-lida-moser/|title=Women's History Month: Lida Moser|date=March 9, 2016|website=Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art|language=en-CA|access-date=2020-04-15}}
- Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri{{cn|date=May 2024}}
- Ryerson Image Centre, Toronto, Canada{{Cite web|url=https://ryersonimagecentre.ca/news/december-2-2019-the-ric-acquires-nearly-500-photographic-masterpieces-from-howard-and-carole-tanenbaums-private-collection/|title=The RIC acquires nearly 500 photographic masterpieces from Howard and Carole Tanenbaum's private collection {{!}} Ryerson Image Centre|website=ryersonimagecentre.ca|access-date=2020-04-16}}
- Trout Gallery at Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania{{Cite web|url=http://www.troutgallery.org/exhibitions/past/2017-2018/|title=The Trout Gallery|website=www.troutgallery.org|access-date=2020-04-16}}
In popular culture
Moser's 1971 book "Construction of Exxon Building, New York City" features a photo of window washers that has been recreated in Lego building blocks at Legoland Florida theme park.
Office Building Lobby, New York, in which Moser's wild overexposure has reduced organization men to near–stick figures and the lobby to an ill-defined blob, presaging by several years the visual distortions of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/03/arts/lida-moser-photographer-with-an-urban-eye-dies-at-93.html Lida Moser obituary in The New York Times]
- [https://www.nga.gov/research/library/imagecollections.html Department of Image Collections],
- [https://www.nga.gov/ National Gallery of Art], Washington DC -
- [https://library.nga.gov/permalink/01NGA_INST/1p5jkvq/alma991744733804896 Photographs of the American art scene from the late 1940s to the 1980s and the changing built environment of lower Manhattan].
- [https://vimeo.com/256997006 Trailer for Lida Moser Photographer: Odyssey in Black and White documentary]
- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8syWfzauvU Video of Exhibition at Musée National des Beaux-arts du Québec]
- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_o8KDaLtvg Video of Lida Moser's 90th Birthday Celebration]
{{Authority control}}
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Category:American women photographers
Category:Photographers from New York City
Category:Photographers from Washington, D.C.
Category:Photographers from Maryland
Category:Jewish American artists
Category:21st-century American Jews
Category:American expatriates in the United Kingdom