Collection context
Summary
- Creators:
- Siskind, Aaron
- Extent:
- 12 Linear Feet (8 flat boxes)
- Language:
- English
- Preferred citation:
-
[identification of item], Aaron Siskind photographs (M2582). Department of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford Libraries, Stanford, California.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
This collection contains 362 photographic prints spanning Aaron Siskind's career from the 1930s until the 1980s, covering both his period of social documentation and his period of abstraction.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Aaron Siskind (1903-1991) was an American photographer from New York City. As part of the Film and Photo League, he produced several documentary photographs, most famously those of the Harlem Document (1937-40). After this period, his work took on a more abstract focus, and he became friends with abstract expressionists such as the painters Mark Rothko, Frank Kline, and Willem de Kooning. Siskind is perhaps best known for his way of taking the three-dimensional world and turning it into a two-dimensional space.
Siskind won a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Distinguished Photography Award from the Friends of Photography for his work. Persuaded by his friend Harry Callahan, he taught at Chicago's Institute of Design and served as its head for ten years between 1961 and 1971 then taught at the Rhode Island School of Design (where that same friend also moved) until retirement.
- Acquisition information:
- Gifts from Damon Barr (Accession 2020-057), Cason Carter (Accession 2020-058), Daniel Eichholz (Accession 2020-103), and David Eichholz (Accession 2020-104).
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Indexed terms
- Subjects:
- Photography, Artistic
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
Collection is open for research. Materials must be requested at least 36 hours in advance of intended use.
- Terms of access:
-
While Special Collections is the owner of the physical items, permission to examine collection materials is not an authorization to publish. These materials are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study. Any transmission or reproduction beyond that allowed by fair use requires permission from the owners of rights, heir(s) or assigns.
- Preferred citation:
-
[identification of item], Aaron Siskind photographs (M2582). Department of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford Libraries, Stanford, California.
- Location of this collection:
-
Department of Special Collections, Green Library557 Escondido MallStanford, CA 94305-6004, US
- Contact:
- (650) 725-1022