William Clift (photographer)

William Clift (born 1944, Boston, MA) is an American photographer known for his black-and-white imagery of landscapes in New Mexico and of architectural subjects. He currently lives and works in Santa Fe, NM.

Early life

Clift was born in Boston in 1944; his uncle was the actor Montgomery Clift. Clift took up photography when he was ten years old using a Polaroid camera, then to buy his own camera spent summers caddying and finding golf balls and taking Coke bottles to recycle.[1] He did no formal training in photography and spent only one year at Columbia University.

With Willem Nyland, Clift studied the Greek-Armenian mystic philosopher George Gurdjieff.

Photographer

Clift's first instruction in photography was a workshop with Paul Caponigro in 1959, when he was fifteen and he has worked professionally since 1963, six years with Steve Gersh as his business partner in Cambridge. He was a founding member of the Association of Heliographers (1963–65) with Carl Chiarenza, Walter Chappell, Paul Caponigro, Nicholas Nixon, Paul Petricone, and Marie Cosindas.[2] Since then, two of his books (2007 and 2012) were designed by Eleanor Caponigro. His early projects included photographing a 1970 series for the Massachusetts Council on the Arts, the old Boston City Hall, the Hudson River Valley,[3] and courthouses around the country.[4][5]

Clift moved to Santa Fe in 1971 with his wife, Vida who after 10 years at Harvard taught at St. John’s while Clift began documenting the landscape of the region, including La Bajada, Canyon de Chelly, and Shiprock, the latter being paired in his photobook with imagery of Mont-St. Michel in France.[6] In 1977 to 1984 he made portraits of American artist Georgia O’Keeffe and her assistant Juan Hamilton[7] and also in 1984 returned to using the Polaroid camera in making portraits of his daughter for A Particular World.

Clift lives in La Tierra and his studio-cum- gallery is at 203 E. Palace Ave. in the Sierra Vista-Hickox neighbourhood.[1]

Awards

Clift is the recipient of two Guggenheim fellowships, two National Endowment for the Arts grants,[8] and a Governor’s Award for the Arts.

Exhibitions

As well as in other institutions, Clift has exhibited in five shows at the Museum of Modern Art, New York;

  • American Landscapes July 9–October 4, 1981
  • Reinstallation of the Collection, October 23, 1980 – January 3, 1982
  • Edward Steichen Photography Center Reinstallation, December 21, 1979
  • Mirrors and Windows: American Photography since 1960, July 26–October 2, 1978
  • Courthouse, April 12–July 10, 1977[4][8]

Collections

Publications
  • Ulmann, Doris; Coles, Robert. New heaven and a new earth. 1974 (1974), The darkness and the light : photographs, Aperture, ISBN 978-0-912334-60-8
  • Clift, William; Kane, Paul (2012), Mont St. Michel and Shiprock, Santa Fe, New Mexico Pearmain Press, ISBN 978-0-9797524-3-8
  • Clift, William; Kane, Paul (1993), A Hudson landscape, photographs, Autographed Books Collection, William Clift Editions, ISBN 978-0-9618165-1-3
  • Clift, William; Amon Carter Museum of Western Art; Art Institute of Chicago (1987), Certain places, William Clift Editions, ISBN 978-0-9618165-0-6
  • Kennedy, William-; Clift, William; New York (State). Temporary State Commission on the Restoration of the Capitol (1986), The Capitol in Albany, Aperture Book, ISBN 978-0-89381-209-6
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References
  1. Weideman, Paul. "William Clift notes: A visit with the photographer". Santa Fe New Mexican. Retrieved 2019-11-12.
  2. Peres, Michael R; Ebook Library (2007), Focal encyclopedia of photography : digital imaging, theory and applications, history, and science (4th ed. / Michael R. Peres, editor-in-chief ed.), Focal, ISBN 978-0-08-047784-8
  3. Clift, William; Kane, Paul (1993), A Hudson landscape, photographs, Autographed Books Collection, William Clift Editions, ISBN 978-0-9618165-1-3
  4. "The Museum of Modern Art, Press release #33,'Photographs of County Courthouses' exhibition" (PDF). The Museum of Modern Art.
  5. Pare, Richard; Lambert, Phyllis; Allen, Harold (1978), Court house, a photographic document, Horizon Press, ISBN 978-0-8180-0028-7
  6. Clift, William; Kane, Paul (2012), Mont St. Michel and Shiprock, Santa Fe, New Mexico Pearmain Press, ISBN 978-0-9797524-3-8
  7. Eldredge, Charles C; O'Keeffe, Georgia; Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes (Mexico); Yokohama Bijutsukan; Hayward Gallery; Intercultura; Georgia O'Keeffe Foundation (1993), Georgia O'Keeffe : American and modern (1st ed.), Yale University Press, in association with InterCultura and the Georgia O'Keeffe Foundation, ISBN 978-0-300-05576-4
  8. Rice, Mark (2005), Through the lens of the city : NEA photography surveys of the 1970s, University Press of Mississippi, ISBN 978-1-57806-707-7
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