| Names: | Born: Charles Rettew Sheeler
|
| | Dates: | 1883, 16 July - 1965, 7 May | | Born: | US, PA, Philadelphia | | Active: | US | | Gender: | Male |
American photographer and painter. He took on freelance photographic work to support his painting - but it is his architectural photographs of industrial plants and house interiors that will be remembered.Preparing biographies
Biography provided by Focal Press
Known primarily as a Precisionist painter, Sheeler’s photographic work was inspired by both the rural and industrial landscape, and was intimately connected, both ideologically and formally, to his painting. His exacting precisionist vision, eye for abstraction, and expressive use of form were central in his photographs, drawings, and paintings. His commercial photographic work for Fortune, Vogue, and Vanity Fair during the 1920s and 1930s gave him a platform to develop his growing interest in architectural and industrial form. Beguiled by the ideology of American industrialism, he produced his most notable photographic series for Ford Motor Company in 1927 at the River Rouge Plant. "Our factories," wrote the artist, "are our substitute for religious expression."
(Author: Garie Waltzer - Photographer and consultant)
Michael Peres (Editor-in-Chief), 2007, Focal Encyclopedia of Photography, 4th edition, (Focal Press) [ISBN-10: 0240807405, ISBN-13: 978-0240807409]
(Used with permission)
Readings on, or by, individual photographers
Lucic, K., 1991, Charles Sheeler and the Cult of the Machine, (London: Reaktion) [Δ]
Lucic, K., 1997, Charles Sheeler in Doylestown: American Modernism and the Pennsylvania Tradition, (Allentown,
PA: Allentown Art Museum and University of Washington Press) [Δ]
Millard III, Charles W, 1967, ‘Charles Sheeler, American Photographer‘, Contemporary Photographer, vol.6, no.1 [Entire issue on Charles Sheeler.] [Δ]
Stebbins Jr, Theodore E & Keyes Jr, Norman, 1987, Charles Sheeler: The Photographs, (Boston: Little, Brown and Company) [Δ]
Stebbins Jr, Theodore E et al., 2002, The Photography of Charles Sheeler: American Modernist, (Boston: Bulfinch Press) [Δ]
If you feel this list is missing a significant book or article please let me know - Alan - alan@luminous-lint.com | |
Family history
If you are related to this photographer and interested in tracking down your extended family we can place a note here for you to help. It is free and you would be amazed who gets in touch.
alan@luminous-lint.com |
|
 | Charles Sheeler: Criss-Crossed Conveyors, River Rouge Plant, Ford Motor Company |
| |
All photographs by this photographer
The following books are useful starting points to obtain brief biographies but they are not substitutes for the monographs on individual photographers. |
• Beaton, Cecil & Buckland, Gail 1975 The Magic Eye: The Genius of Photography from 1839 to the Present Day (Boston and Toronto: Little, Brown & Company) p.172 [Useful short biographies with personal asides and one or more example images.]
• Capa, Cornell (ed.) 1984 The International Center of Photography: Encyclopedia of Photography (New York, Crown Publishers, Inc. - A Pound Press Book) p.459-460
• Fernandez, Horacio (ed.) 2000 Fotografía Pública: Photography in Print 1919-1939 (Aldeasa) p.224 [This Spanish exhibition catalogue is one of the best sources for illustrations of photomontage and book design for the period between the two World Wars.]
• Witkin, Lee D. and Barbara London 1979 The Photograph Collector’s Guide (London: Secker and Warburg) p.232-233 [Long out of print but an essential reference work - the good news is that a new edition is in preparation.]
|
If there is an analysis of a single photograph or a useful self portrait I will highlight it here. |
Photographic collections are a useful means of examining large numbers of photographs by a single photographer on-line.
|
Library of Congress, Washington, USA
Approximate number of records: ?
Note: A single record may contain more than one photograph. | Click here |
| "Photography is nature seen from the eyes outward, painting from the eyes inward. Photography records inalterably the single image, while painting records a plurality of images willfully directed by the artist." |
|
