Alex Webb (photographer)

Alex Webb (born 5 May 1952) is a photographer associated with Magnum Photos.^[1]

He has had a number of books published, his main works being Hot Light/Half-Made Worlds (1986), Under a Grudging Sun (1989) From The Sunshine State (1996), Amazon (1997) Crossings (2003), Istanbul (2007) and The Suffering of Light (2011). With Rebecca Norris Webb he has also published Violet Isle (2009) and Memory City (2014).

He has contributed to Geo, Time and The New York Times Magazine.

Career

Born in San Francisco, Webb was raised in New England.^[2] Webb first became interested in photography as a high school student and in 1972 attended the Apeiron Workshops in Millerton, New York, where he met Magnum photographers Bruce Davidson and Charles Harbutt. He went on to study history and literature at Harvard University (graduating in 1974), but also studied photography at the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts. By 1974 he was working as a photojournalist and in 1976 he became an associate member of Magnum Photos. During this time he documented small-town life in the American South. He also did some work in the Caribbean and Mexico, which led him, in 1978, to begin working in color, which he has continued to do.^[3]

Webb's work has been exhibited around the world, including at the Walker Art Center, the Museum of Photographic Arts, the International Center of Photography, the High Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. His work is in numerous collections.^[4] He has received commissions from the High Museum of Art as well as the Banesto Foundation in Spain.

Webb has produced six monographs with bodies of work from The Tropics (Mexico, the Caribbean Islands, Africa, and Asia), Haiti, Florida, the Amazon region, the U.S.-Mexico Border, and Istanbul, and one retrospective monograph, The Suffering of Light.

Webb now lives and works in Brooklyn, New York^[5] with his wife, Rebecca Norris Webb, who is also a photographer.

Publications

Publications by Webb

• Hot Light/Half-Made Worlds: Photographs from the Tropics, New York: Thames & Hudson, 1986. ISBN 978-0-500-54116-6
• Under a Grudging Sun: Photographs from Haiti Libere, New York: Thames & Hudson, 1989. ISBN 978-0-500-27544-3
• From The Sunshine State: Photographs of Florida, New York: Monacelli Press, Inc., 1996. ISBN 978-1-885254-23-8
• Amazon: From the Floodplains to the Clouds USA: Monacelli Press, Inc., 1997. ISBN 978-1-885254-77-1
• Dislocations, Edition of 40. Massachusttes: Film Study Center at Harvard University, 1998-1999.^[3]
• Crossings: Photographs from the U.S.-Mexico Border. New York: Monacelli Press, 2003. ISBN 978-1-58093-096-3. With an essay by Tom Miller.
• Yours Gallery Portfolio, Warsaw: Yours Gallery, 2005.^[3]
• Istanbul: City of a Hundred Names. New York: Aperture, 2007. ISBN 978-1-59711-034-1. With Orhan Pamuk.
• The Caribbean. A collection of Webb's images from all over this region.
  • London: Trolley, 2010. ISBN 978-1907112188.
  • Karibik. Hamburg: Mare, 2010. ISBN 978-3866480094. German language version.
• The Suffering of Light. New York: Aperture, 2011. ISBN 978-1-59711-173-7
• Contatti. Provini d'Autore = Choosing the best photo by using the contact sheet. Vol. II. Edited by Giammaria De Gasperis. Rome: Postcart, 2013. ISBN 978-88-98391-01-1.

Publications with others

• Endure: Renewal from Ground Zero. New York: Rockefeller Foundation, 2001. ISBN 0891840613. By Webb, Antonín Kratochvíl, Jurek Wajdowicz, Carolina Salguero and Larry Towell.
• Alex Webb Habla Con Max Kozloff, Conversaciones con fotógrafos. Barcelona, Spain: La Fabrica, 2003. ISBN 978-8495471727. Pp. 75.
• Conversations with Contemporary Photographers. New York, NY: Umbrage, 2005. ISBN 978-1884167485. Transcript of a conversation between Webb and Max Kozloff. Pp. 150. Also includes contributions from Philip-Lorca diCorcia and Nan Richardson; Javier Vallhonrat and Santiago Olma; Miguel Rio Branco and Tereza Siza; Duane Michals and Enrica Vigano; Max Pam and Pablo Ortiz Monasterio; Bernard Plassu and Juan Manual Bonet; and John Foncuberta and Cristina Zeklich.
• Violet Isle. Santa Fe: Radius Books, 2009. ISBN 978-1-934435-18-2. With Rebecca Norris Webb and Pico Iyer.
• Alex Webb & Rebecca Norris Webb: Memory City. Sante Fe, NM: Radius Books. 2014. p. 172. ISBN 978-1-934435-76-2. With Rebecca Norris Webb.
• Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb on Street Photography and the Poetic Image: The Photography Workshop Series. New York, NY: Aperture. 2014. p. 128. ISBN 978-1-59711-257-4. With Rebecca Norris Webb. Introduction by Teju Cole.

Awards

• 1980: Overseas Press Club Award.
• 1986: New York State Council on the Arts Grant.
• 1988: Leopold Godowsky, Jr. Color Photography Award.
• 1990: W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund Grant.
• 1990: National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship.
• 1998: Hasselblad Foundation.
• 2000: Leica Medal of Excellence.
• 2002: David Octavius Hill Medal.
• 2007: Guggenheim Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.
• 2008: Lucca Photo Festival Award, Lucca.

^[4]

References

External links

• Personal Web site
• Portfolio at Magnum Photos
• Museum of Contemporary Photography biography and works
• National Geographic magazine: Alex Webb