Museum receives major donation of photography

In December 2020 the California-based photography collector David Knaus facilitated a significant donation of 20th-century photographs to the Georgia Museum of Art. In both quantity and content, this gift effectively transforms the museum’s photographic holdings and helps pave an exciting new path for research and programs on modern and contemporary photography. The gift consists of three parts:

• 90 prints by the self-described American “social documentary photographer” Milton Rogovin, donated by both David Knaus and the artist’s daughter-in-law Michelle Melin-Rogovin
• 60 photographs by Australian photographer Lewis Morley, considered one of the most significant photographic voices of 1960s British culture, gifted by Dr. J. Patrick and Patricia A. Kennedy; and
• An archive of nearly 3,000 prints by the so-called “magic realist” American photographer Arthur Tress, also from Dr. Pat and Patricia Kennedy.

In addition, the Kennedys donated a small group of vintage prints by American photographers Harry Callahan, Joel Levinson and Ezra Stoller.

Milton Rogovin (American, 1909 – 2011) was a self-described “social documentary photographer” deeply concerned with the poor and with workers’ rights. His work is often compared to 19th-century forerunners Lewis Hine and Jacob Riis. Rogovin trained as an optometrist and established his practice in Buffalo, New York, after serving in World War II. After he was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1957, however, he took up the camera to address urgent social issues. He made series on the plight of miners across 10 countries (beginning with mining communities in Appalachia), the decline of industry in Buffalo and the struggle of working people in Buffalo’s impoverished Lower West Side. His first series, documenting music in Buffalo’s Black storefront churches (1958 – 60), was published by Minor White in Aperture magazine (1962), with an introduction by W.E.B. DuBois. The master collection of his photographs is held by the Center for Creative Photography, and the Library of Congress also owns a major collection of his photographs and negatives.

Lewis Morley (Australian, b. Hong Kong, 1925 – 2013) was a self-taught photographer whose career spanned fashion, theater, reportage and portrait photography. His most iconic works include his portrait of Christine Keeler and the first published photographs of models and actors like Twiggy, Jean Shrimpton and Michael Caine. Morley is considered one of the most significant photographic voices of 1960s Britain. He captured the rising tide of art, journalism and media during a period that witnessed the transition from 1950s conservatism to 1960s satire, irreverence and subversive creativity. The Lewis Morley archive was donated by the artist’s family to the UK’s National Media Museum in 2013, with assistance from David Knaus. Only four “museum sets” of Morley’s work exist, making this group of prints the fourth to enter an institutional collection.

Arthur Tress (American, b. 1940) had an early interest in ethnographic photography, which led to his post as a U.S. government photographer to record the endangered folkways of Appalachia. This experience spurred a new environmental awareness in Tress and a series focused on resource extraction and the human costs of pollution. Following this work came a more personal, “magic realist” period, in which he combined spontaneous aspects of everyday life with staged fantasies. This became his hallmark style, likely influenced by his childhood in Brooklyn, when he made snapshots of the circus performers and run-down buildings of Coney Island. After a few years experimenting with color photographs filled with children’s toys, Tress returned to black-and-white photography, working in the more formalist style of midcentury modernism. His works recently appeared in a show on surrealist painting at the Menil Collection and will be featured in an exhibition on the history of gender politics at the Tate Modern (2021) and a major monographic exhibition at the Getty (2022). Stanford University holds the master archive of Tress’ vintage prints, making our collection only the second comprehensive archive of his work in the country. (The University of Pennsylvania also owns 2,000 photographs, along with the artist’s collection of Japanese illustrated books.)

Selections from Rogovin’s and Tress’ photographs of Appalachia will be on view at the museum this September.

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