Institute of Design Photography Oral History Project, 2011

Collection

Identifier: 008.05.01

Staff Only

Twenty-three video interviews with Institute of Design alumni regarding their experiences in the photography program. The interviewees discuss fellow students and instructors such as Arthur Siegel, Aaron Siskind, Garry Winogrand, Harry Callahan, Nathan Lerner, Frederick Sommer, and others. The interviews were recorded on Sunday, May 1, 2011 at the Stephen Daiter Gallery, Chicago, IL. The collection includes 23 interviews, 3 essays, 3 photographs and a guestbook.

Dates

Creation: 2011

Creator

Illinois Institute of Technology. Institute of Design (Organization)

Language of Materials

Records are in English.

Conditions Governing Access

Available for Research

Collection Size

5 Items (4 DVD-Rs and 1 book. The DVD-Rs contain 23 audio recordings of interviews, 3 documents, 3 photographs. 52 files in total (23 WAV, 23 MP3, 2 DOC, 1 RTF, 3 JPG).)

Additional Description

Biographical Note

The history of photography pedagogy at Institute of Design dates from at least the summer of 1946 when the school hosted a six-week symposium, "The New Vision in Photography." As a degreed program, photography was one of the school's most significant programs from the early 1950s through the 1970s. This seminal program was taught by four key faculty members whose tenure spanned the years 1941-1971: Nathan Lerner (1913-1997), Arthur Siegel (1913-1978), Harry M. Callahan (1912-1999), and Aaron Siskind (1903-1991). Their pedagogy shaped the first professional graduate program in photography to be taught in the United States. The first Masters of Science degrees in photography were awarded by Institute of Design in 1952. Until 1999, when ID ceased its undergraduate program, the school also offered an undergraduate degree concentration in photography.