John Collier (anthropologist)

John Collier Jr.
John Collier, Jr.
Born	May 22, 1913 Sparkill, New York
Died	February 25, 1992 (1992-02-26) (aged 78) San José, Costa Rica
Nationality	American
Known for	Photography, Visual Anthropology
Scientific career
Fields	Photography, Visual anthropology
Institutions	Standard Oil Company Cornell University San Francisco State University
Influences	Artist Maynard Dixon Social Scientists Roy Emerson Stryker, Alexander H. Leighton
Notes
John Collier's photographs are archived at the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology.

John Collier Jr. (May 22, 1913 – February 25, 1992) was an American anthropologist and an early leader in the fields of visual anthropology and applied anthropology. His emphasis on analysis and use of still photographs in ethnography led him to significant contributions in other subfields of anthropology, especially the applied anthropology of education. His book, Visual Anthropology: Photography as a Research Method (1967) is one of the earliest textbooks in the field and is still (revised 1986) in use today. He is also notable as someone who overcame significant learning and hearing impairments to succeed on a larger stage.

John Collier Jr., born May 22, 1913 in Sparkill, New York, was the son of Lucy Wood Collier and sociologist John Collier. His father was the head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs during the New Deal. John Jr. grew up largely in Taos, New Mexico and the San Francisco Bay Area in California. While living in Mill Valley, California, John suffered injuries in a car accident at age 8 that resulted in major brain injuries and associated learning disabilities and hearing loss that prevented him from successfully completing schooling beyond a third grade level, although he attended school sporadically into his teens. When it became evident that he could not perform in school, his family permitted to him spend considerable time, when in New Mexico, living with family friends in the Taos Indian Pueblo. During the periods he was in California, he came under the influence of Capt. Leighton Robinson, a retired English master in sail, who provided seamanship training to John.

He was also informally apprenticed to the Western painter, Maynard Dixon, who was then married to the photographer Dorothea Lange. He spent considerable time in the Dixon / Lange household in San Francisco during his early and mid teens and was trained in a wide range of painting techniques and skills. When in Taos he also received informal training from the artist Nicolai Fechin. This training largely ended in 1930, when he signed on as seaman in the four masted bark Abraham Rydberg for a voyage from San Francisco around Cape Horn to Dublin, Ireland, an experience arranged by Capt. Robinson. On his return from the voyage he continued to divide his time between Taos and the Bay Area, and in 1934 he established a home in Talpa, New Mexico, which would remain an important anchor place throughout his life.