Lida at the Arts Club of Washington, D.C.

On Wednesday of last week, Cathy and I went to yet another of Lida Moser's shows, this one at the MacFeely Gallery of the Arts Club of Washington, D.C. It's always a wonderful experience to be in Lida's presence--even if she's not there in person. A bad fall last month on her 89th birthday has sidelined her at home while she recuperates. Microphone in hand, however, she and her walker did manage to address the crowd on opening night two weeks ago. As Lida's friend Lenny says, "Tough New Yorker." Indeed!



Lenny--F. Lennox Campello--who blogs as Daily Campello Art News, reported:

This almost 90-year-old photographer is not only one of the most respected American photographers of the 20th century, but also a pioneer in the field of photojournalism. Her photography has been in the middle of a revival and rediscovery of vintage photojournalism, and has sold...at Christie's auctions and continues to be collected by both museums and private collectors worldwide. In a career spanning over 60 years, Moser has produced a body of works consisting of thousands of photographs and photographic assemblages that defy categorization and genre or label assignment.

Additionally, Canadian television a couple of years ago finished filming a documentary about her life; the second in the last few years, and Moser’s work is now in the collection of many museums worldwide.

She was once called the "grandmother of American street photography" by an art critic, which prompted a quick rebuttal by Moser, who called the writer's editor and told him that she wasn't the "fucking grandmother of anything or anyone, and would he [the writer] ever describe Ansel Adams or any other male photographer as the 'grandfather' of any style."

Tough New Yorker.

The show is a reprise of her contributions to a major 2001 exhibit of contemporary realist artist John Koch's paintings at the New York Historical Society. The exhibition notes on the Historical Society's website include this remark:

Koch's work resisted the trend toward abstraction prevalent in his time. He chronicled a variety of relationships as experienced in the mid-twentieth century: friends, lovers, spouses, artists and models, teachers and students (even apartment dwellers and contractors!). Many of the paintings record members of John and Dora's social circle, most of them artists, writers and musicians, who participated in their European-style salon, an oasis of high culture and refinement in New York City.

Lida's unique photographic vision is made for elegant, contemplative spaces in which visitors can savor her love of capturing extraordinary artists in their everyday milieu. Lida was enamored of the MacFeely Gallery space and the whole building, and so were we. She feels the atmosphere fit with Koch's own elegant home in NYC. Koch (1909-1978) and his wife, Dora Zaslavsky, were friends of Lida's. She took many photos of both John and Dora and his work in their apartment. She says, "They were a sweet, LOVING couple--to each other, to other people, and to his art."

Cathy resting in one of the galleries.


Simplicity and light.







Get well soon, Lida! We love you!