Henry Swift (photographer)
Encyclopedia
Henry Swift was an American photographer and member of the famous Group f/64
.
In the early 1920s he met photographer Edward Weston
by chance in Carmel, California and began making photographs as a hobby. He was earning a living as a stockbroker, a career he continued throughout his life. In 1932 he became a founding member of Group f/64 along with Weston, Ansel Adams
, Imogen Cunningham
and several others. Later that year he showed nine prints (the same number as Weston) in the landmark Group f/64 show at the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco. While participating in the group, he was also able to collect many of the other photographers prints because of earnings as a stockbroker. Cunningham recalls that Swift bought all of the prints from the first show, which, if he paid the listed price for each photo, would have cost him a grand total of $845 for 80 prints.
After Group f/64 dissolved in 1935, Swift's interest in photography wained. He is not known to have exhibited again. When he died in 1962, his widow Florence Swift assembled his collection of photographs from members of Group f/64, sought additional donations from some of the original members of the group, and donated the entire collection to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
.
Group f/64
Group f/64 was a group of seven 20th century San Francisco photographers who shared a common photographic style characterized by sharp-focused and carefully framed images seen through a particularly Western viewpoint...
.
In the early 1920s he met photographer Edward Weston
Edward Weston
Edward Henry Weston was a 20th century American photographer. He has been called "one of the most innovative and influential American photographers…" and "one of the masters of 20th century photography." Over the course of his forty-year career Weston photographed an increasingly expansive set of...
by chance in Carmel, California and began making photographs as a hobby. He was earning a living as a stockbroker, a career he continued throughout his life. In 1932 he became a founding member of Group f/64 along with Weston, Ansel Adams
Ansel Adams
Ansel Easton Adams was an American photographer and environmentalist, best known for his black-and-white photographs of the American West, especially in Yosemite National Park....
, Imogen Cunningham
Imogen Cunningham
Imogen Cunningham was an American photographer known for her photography of botanicals, nudes and industry.-Life and career:...
and several others. Later that year he showed nine prints (the same number as Weston) in the landmark Group f/64 show at the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco. While participating in the group, he was also able to collect many of the other photographers prints because of earnings as a stockbroker. Cunningham recalls that Swift bought all of the prints from the first show, which, if he paid the listed price for each photo, would have cost him a grand total of $845 for 80 prints.
After Group f/64 dissolved in 1935, Swift's interest in photography wained. He is not known to have exhibited again. When he died in 1962, his widow Florence Swift assembled his collection of photographs from members of Group f/64, sought additional donations from some of the original members of the group, and donated the entire collection to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is a modern art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art and was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th century art...
.