….I WONDER if John Szarkowski, the noted photographer and photography curator who died over the weekend at 81, knew that one of his photos was indirectly responsible for a book that has become a cult classic.
Szarkowski, who was curator of photography at the Museum of Modern Art in New York for 19 years, had deep Wisconsin ties. (In an appreciation Monday in the New York Times, Verlyn Klinkenborg began: “It’s worth remembering how much Wisconsin there was in the voice of John Szarkowski.”) A native of Ashland, Szarkowski had most recently spent a semester in 2000 teaching at UW-Madison.