Louis Faurer
Encyclopedia
Louis Faurer was an American fashion photographer
and a master of candid or street photography
. A quiet artist who never achieved the broad public recognition of his best-known contemporaries, the significance and caliber of his work were lauded by insiders, among them Robert Frank
, William Eggleston
, and Edward Steichen
, who included his work in the Museum of Modern Art
exhibitions In and Out of Focus (1948) and The Family of Man
(1955).
Growing up in Philadelphia, Faurer showed an early aptitude for illustration. He bought his first camera in 1937 from the photographer Ben Somoroff. After a couple of jobs as a photographic technician, Faurer made his way to Manhattan and into the world of fashion photography. He quickly made contacts that stood him in good stead: Robert Frank, with whom he shared a darkroom/studio and fast friendship, and Walker Evans
, whom he’d long admired, who introduced him to Alexander Liberman
at Vogue
. Faurer photographed for magazines including Junior Bazaar, Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, Look
, Life
, Mademoiselle
, and Glamour
for more than twenty years. He complained that his work at Life involved too much travel, so he quit in the early 1950s. Most of the prints and negatives of his fashion work have probably been discarded, as Faurer stored them with a friend when he left the country in the late 1960s, then failed to reclaim them.
It is Faurer’s personal work from the '40s, '50s, and '60s for which he is best remembered. He photographed the streets of New York and Philadelphia, capturing the restless energy of urban life. His sensitive lens probed the great variety of the city's human face, especially "the lonely Times Square
people for whom Faurer felt a deep sympathy."
Faurer experimented with blur, grain, double exposures, sandwiched negatives, reflections, slow film speeds, and low lighting to achieve the effects he was seeking. As exacting in the darkroom as he was in the field, he was notorious for being a tireless perfectionist when it came to cropping and printing his work.
In the mid- and late 1960s Faurer experimented with hand-held 16mm Arriflex and Beaulieu
movie cameras, filming in the streets of Manhattan, extending his still camera style into a cinematic medium. He also edited this footage.
Between 1969 and 1974 he lived and worked abroad, mostly in Paris. From the mid-’70s to the mid-’80s, Faurer taught at numerous art schools and universities, including the Parsons School of Design in New York City, the University of Virginia
in Charlottesville, and Stockton State College in New Jersey. He also received grants from the NEA and the Guggenheim.
Faurer’s first solo show was held at Helen Gee’s Limelight Gallery in 1959. In 1977 he had his second solo exhibition, at the Marlborough Gallery in Manhattan, followed by a 1981 exhibition at The Art Gallery at the University of Maryland
. A posthumous show, first mounted at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, in 2002, traveled to several cities.
In 1984, while running to catch a city bus, Faurer was struck by a car and seriously injured. He never photographed again.
“I am in awe of the high point he can reach in a photograph such as Family, Times Square, at the center of New York in the center of our century. Perhaps no other American image stands comparison with Picasso’s Family of Saltimbanques, on their imagined European plane in 1905….Faurer stands and lives as a master of his medium.” —Walter Hopps
Photography
Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
and a master of candid or street photography
Street photography
Street photography is a type of documentary photography that features subjects in candid situations within public places such as streets, parks, beaches, malls, political conventions and other settings....
. A quiet artist who never achieved the broad public recognition of his best-known contemporaries, the significance and caliber of his work were lauded by insiders, among them Robert Frank
Robert Frank
Robert Frank , born in Zürich, Switzerland, is an important figure in American photography and film. His most notable work, the 1958 photobook titled The Americans, was influential, and earned Frank comparisons to a modern-day de Tocqueville for his fresh and skeptical outsider's view of American...
, William Eggleston
William Eggleston
William Eggleston , is an American photographer. He is widely credited with increasing recognition for color photography as a legitimate artistic medium to display in art galleries—which, until the 1970s, often tended to privilege work by photographers making black-and-white prints.- Early years...
, and Edward Steichen
Edward Steichen
Edward J. Steichen was an American photographer, painter, and art gallery and museum curator. He was the most frequently featured photographer in Alfred Stieglitz' groundbreaking magazine Camera Work during its run from 1903 to 1917. Steichen also contributed the logo design and a custom typeface...
, who included his work in the Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
exhibitions In and Out of Focus (1948) and The Family of Man
The Family of Man
The Family of Man was a photography exhibition curated by Edward Steichen first shown in 1955 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.According to Steichen, the exhibition represented the 'culmination of his career'. The 508 photos by 273 photographers in 68 countries were selected from almost 2...
(1955).
Growing up in Philadelphia, Faurer showed an early aptitude for illustration. He bought his first camera in 1937 from the photographer Ben Somoroff. After a couple of jobs as a photographic technician, Faurer made his way to Manhattan and into the world of fashion photography. He quickly made contacts that stood him in good stead: Robert Frank, with whom he shared a darkroom/studio and fast friendship, and Walker Evans
Walker Evans
Walker Evans was an American photographer best known for his work for the Farm Security Administration documenting the effects of the Great Depression. Much of Evans's work from the FSA period uses the large-format, 8x10-inch camera...
, whom he’d long admired, who introduced him to Alexander Liberman
Alexander Liberman
Alexander Semeonovitch Liberman was a Russian-American magazine editor, publisher, painter, photographer, and sculptor. He held senior artistic positions during his 32 years at Condé Nast Publications.-Biography:When his father took a post advising the Soviet government, the family moved to Moscow...
at Vogue
Vogue (magazine)
Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine that is published monthly in 18 national and one regional edition by Condé Nast.-History:In 1892 Arthur Turnure founded Vogue as a weekly publication in the United States. When he died in 1909, Condé Montrose Nast picked up the magazine and slowly began...
. Faurer photographed for magazines including Junior Bazaar, Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, Look
Look (American magazine)
Look was a bi-weekly, general-interest magazine published in Des Moines, Iowa from 1937 to 1971, with more of an emphasis on photographs than articles...
, Life
Life (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
, Mademoiselle
Mademoiselle (magazine)
Mademoiselle was an influential women's magazine first published in 1935 by Street and Smith and later acquired by Condé Nast Publications....
, and Glamour
Glamour (magazine)
Glamour is a women's magazine published by Condé Nast Publications. Founded in 1939 in the United States, it was originally called Glamour of Hollywood....
for more than twenty years. He complained that his work at Life involved too much travel, so he quit in the early 1950s. Most of the prints and negatives of his fashion work have probably been discarded, as Faurer stored them with a friend when he left the country in the late 1960s, then failed to reclaim them.
It is Faurer’s personal work from the '40s, '50s, and '60s for which he is best remembered. He photographed the streets of New York and Philadelphia, capturing the restless energy of urban life. His sensitive lens probed the great variety of the city's human face, especially "the lonely Times Square
Times Square
Times Square is a major commercial intersection in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue and stretching from West 42nd to West 47th Streets...
people for whom Faurer felt a deep sympathy."
Faurer experimented with blur, grain, double exposures, sandwiched negatives, reflections, slow film speeds, and low lighting to achieve the effects he was seeking. As exacting in the darkroom as he was in the field, he was notorious for being a tireless perfectionist when it came to cropping and printing his work.
In the mid- and late 1960s Faurer experimented with hand-held 16mm Arriflex and Beaulieu
Beaulieu (company)
MAISON BRANDT FRÈRES, CHARENTON-LE-PONT is a French manufacturer of motion picture cameras especially well-known for its Super 8 and 16mm hand-held cameras, founded by Marcel Beaulieu. Marcel Beaulieu had earlier been associated with GIC cameras introduced in 1950. The company's first cameras...
movie cameras, filming in the streets of Manhattan, extending his still camera style into a cinematic medium. He also edited this footage.
Between 1969 and 1974 he lived and worked abroad, mostly in Paris. From the mid-’70s to the mid-’80s, Faurer taught at numerous art schools and universities, including the Parsons School of Design in New York City, the University of Virginia
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...
in Charlottesville, and Stockton State College in New Jersey. He also received grants from the NEA and the Guggenheim.
Faurer’s first solo show was held at Helen Gee’s Limelight Gallery in 1959. In 1977 he had his second solo exhibition, at the Marlborough Gallery in Manhattan, followed by a 1981 exhibition at The Art Gallery at the University of Maryland
The Art Gallery at the University of Maryland
The Art Gallery at the University of Maryland is a contemporary art gallery on the campus of the University of Maryland, College Park. Founded in 1955, the Gallery was initially housed in the Tawes Building before moving to a newly-constructed exhibition facility in the Arts-Sociology Building in...
. A posthumous show, first mounted at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, in 2002, traveled to several cities.
In 1984, while running to catch a city bus, Faurer was struck by a car and seriously injured. He never photographed again.
“I am in awe of the high point he can reach in a photograph such as Family, Times Square, at the center of New York in the center of our century. Perhaps no other American image stands comparison with Picasso’s Family of Saltimbanques, on their imagined European plane in 1905….Faurer stands and lives as a master of his medium.” —Walter Hopps
Walter Hopps
Walter Hopps was an American museum director and curator of contemporary art. His obituary in the Washington Post described him as a "sort of a gonzo museum director -- elusive, unpredictable, outlandish in his range, jagged in his vision, heedless of rules."Hopps was born in Eagle Rock, Los...
External links
- "Louis Faurer, Photographer Who Captured Compelling Images of the Street, Dies at 84," New York Times, March 12, 2001
- "The Lives They Lived: Gallery: Louis Faurer, B. 1916, Friends Through the Lens," New York Times, December 30, 2001
- MIA Collection of Photographs by Louis Faurer
- Museum of Contemporary Photography Collection
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art Collection
- "Elevated Subway on 3rd Avenue (looking at Tudor City, NY) c.1947"