Todd on the Ohio River, 1955
In 1905, Charles Clayton ("Todd") Webb III was born in Detroit, Michigan. Having been a successful stockbroker in the 1920’s, he lost all of his earnings, and then some, in The Crash. During the Depression, Webb prospected for gold, worked as a forest ranger, and wrote short stories that have gone unpublished. It was during this exploratory period in the 1930s that he first picked up a camera. His interest and love for photography soon crowded out his writing ambitions, and he was able to do the two things he loved the most: travel, meet people, and photograph them.
In 1938 Webb joined the Chrysler Camera Club in Detroit, where he met aspiring photographer Harry Callahan. Through a workshop from Ansel Adams, Webb's interest in the sharp focus technique of "straight photography" was confirmed. After serving in World War II, Todd Webb moved to New York where he nurtured a friendship with Alfred Stieglitz and his wife Georgia O’Keeffe who introduced him to Beaumont Newhall, and later Newhall curated the first major exhibition of Webb's photographs for The Museum of The City of New York. Also during this time, Todd worked for Roy Stryker and the Standard Oil Company.
In 1949 Todd Webb returned to Paris, and met his wife Lucille, remaining in France for the next four years. In both 1955 and 1956, Todd Webb was awarded two successive John Simon Guggenheim fellowships to photograph the pioneer trails that early America settlers followed to Oregon and California. While his contemporary, Robert Frank drove across the country during these years, Todd walked and photographed as he moved from East to West.
Up until the 1980's, Todd Webb photographed and produced a unique body of work, which has attained an important place in the annals of American photographic history. Frequently referred to as "an historian with a camera," Webb's rich images document life all over the world. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and is included in numerous museum collections including the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Minneapolis Art Institute, and the Chicago Art Institute.
Todd Webb died in May, 2000 at the age of 94 in Central Maine. His life was like his photographs; at first they seem very simple, without obvious tricks or manipulation, but upon closer examination, they are increasingly complex and marvellously subtle.
SELECTED MUSEUM & PRIVATE COLLECTIONS
Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts
Akron Art Musuem, Akron, Ohio
Allentown Art Museum, Allentown, Pennsylvania
The American Embassy, Paris, France
Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas
Biblioteque Nationale, Paris, France
Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine
Boston Athenaeum, Boston, Massachusetts
Carnegie Museum, University of Maine at Orono, Orono, Maine
Center for Creative Photography, Tuscon, Arizona
Chicago Art Institute, Chicago, Illinois
Colby College Art Museum, Waterville, Maine
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas
The David Winton Bell Gallery at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island
Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado
George Eastman House, Rochester, New York
Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, California
Graham Nash Collection, Los Angeles, California
Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington
Historic New Orleans Collection & Archives of American Art, New Orleans, Louisiana
Institute of Art, Detroit, Michigan
The International Center of Photography
Judy and Leonard Lauder Collection, New York, New York
Lehigh University Art Gallery, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Middlebury College Museum of Art, Middlebury, Vermont
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
Museum of Fine Arts, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan
Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), New York, New York
Museum of the City of New York, New York
The Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University
The National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC
The National Museum, Tokyo, Japan
The National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago, Illinois
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri
New Mexico Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico
New York Public Library, New York
Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois
The Painting Gallery, Munich, Germany
Pomona College Museum of Art, Claremont, California
Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Maine
Rice University, Houston, Texas
Rochester Institute of Art, Rochester, New York
Royal Photography Society, London, England
San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, Texas
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California
Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, California
Smith College Art Museum, Northampton, Massachusetts
The Smithsonian, Washington, DC
University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Worcester Museum of Art, Worcester, Massachusetts
PUBLICATIONS
Gold Strikes and Ghost Towns, Doubleday Press, 1961
The Gold Rush Trails and the Road to Oregon, Doubleday Press, 1963
Nineteenth Century Texas Homes, University of Texas Press, 1966
Georgia O’Keeffe, The Artist’s Landscape, Twelvetrees Press, 1984
Looking Back: Memoirs and Photographs of Todd Webb, University of New Mexico Press, 1991
Todd Webb: Photographs of New York and Paris, Hallmark Cards, Inc., 1986
Todd Webb: New York, Paris, O’Keeffe, Friends, Mega Press, Japan, 1998
Todd Webb: A Photographer’s Welcome Home, University of Maine Press, 2008
After Atget: Todd Webb Photographs New York and Paris, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, 2011
New York, 1946, 21st Editions, 2014
I See a City: Todd Webb’s New York, Thames & Hudson, 2017
Todd Webb in Africa: Outside the Frame, Thames & Hudson, 2021
DOCUMENTARIES
“Honest Vision: A Portrait of Todd Webb.” Written, Produced, and Directed by James “Huey” Coleman in 1996. Winner of the Silver Plaque, Chicago International Film Festival.
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