Alex Webb (photographer)

Alex Webb (born 5 May 1952, San Francisco, California) is a photojournalist associated with Magnum Photos. He has primarily worked in color, has published several books, and has contributed to such magazines as GEO, Time, and the New York Times Magazine.

Career

Born in San Francisco, Webb was raised in New England.^[1] 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.^[2]

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.^[3] He has received commissions from the High Museum of Art as well as the Banesto Foundation in Spain.

Webb now lives and works in Brooklyn, New York^[4] with his wife, Rebecca Norris Webb, who is also a photographer.

Awards

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

^[3]

Bibliography

• Alex Webb Habla Con Max Kozloff, Barcelona, Spain: La Fabrica, 2003.
• Alex Webb: The Suffering of Light, with Geoff Dyer. New York: Aperture, 2011. ISBN 978-1-59711-173-7
• Amazon: From the Floodplains to the Clouds USA: Monacelli Press, Inc., 1997. ISBN 978-1-885254-77-1
• Crossings: Photographs from the U.S.-Mexico Border, with Tom Miller. New York: Monacelli Press, 2003. ISBN 978-1-58093-096-3
• Dislocations, Massachusttes: Film Study Center at Harvard University, 1998-1999.
• From The Sunshine State: Photographs of Florida, New York: Monacelli Press, Inc., 1996. ISBN 978-1-885254-23-8
• Hot Light/Half-Made Worlds: Photographs from the Tropics, New York: Thames & Hudson, 1986. ISBN 978-0-500-54116-6
• Istanbul: City of a Hundred Names, with Orhan Pamuk New York: Aperture, 2007. ISBN 978-1-59711-034-1
• Violet Isle, with Rebecca Norris Webb and Pico Iyer. Radius Books, 2009. ISBN 978-1-934435-18-2
• Under a Grudging Sun: Photographs from Haiti Libere, New York: Thames & Hudson, 1989. ISBN 978-0-500-27544-3
• Yours Gallery Portfolio, Warsaw: Yours Gallery, 2005.

^[2]

References

External links

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