Henry Wessel's California Photography Retrospective Opens at The Grolier Club
Today marks the opening of an exhibition showcasing more than 65 prints by the late photographer Henry Wessel (1942-2018) at The Grolier Club in New York. Entitled "Henry Wessel — Photographs and Books," the display will be available until November 14 and features his notable Incidents and Traffic series, as well as works from Real Estate and Night Walks. Wessel, originally from New Jersey, rose to fame in the early 1970s for his black-and-white documentary and landscape photography. He served as a faculty member at the San Francisco Art Institute from 1973 until 2014. Noteworthy pieces include "Untitled" (1968) and various series from the 1980s and 1990s. A quote from Wessel, “The photograph is not the world, it's a completely different thing,” was featured in a 2014 TateShorts video.
Key facts
- Exhibition of over 65 prints by Henry Wessel opens at The Grolier Club in New York.
- Show titled 'Henry Wessel — Photographs and Books' runs through November 14.
- Includes Incidents and Traffic series in totality, plus works from Real Estate and Night Walks.
- Wessel (1942-2018) was a New Jersey native who studied at Pennsylvania State University.
- He taught at the San Francisco Art Institute from 1973 to 2014.
- Wessel received a Guggenheim grant and moved to the Bay Area.
- Traffic series shot from car, capturing candid moments.
- Early work 'Untitled' from 1968 is included.
- Wessel's quote about luck and photography from an SFMOMA interview.
- Tate Modern displayed his Incidents series in 2014.
Entities
Artists
- Henry Wessel
Institutions
- The Grolier Club
- Pennsylvania State University
- San Francisco Art Institute
- SFMOMA
- Tate Modern
- Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation
- The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Locations
- New York
- New Jersey
- California
- Bay Area
- San Francisco
- East Bay
- Los Angeles
- Sunset Park
- United States