Morley Baer
| Morley Baer | |
|---|---|
Morley Baer in the early 1980s
|
|
| Born |
Morley Baer April 5, 1916 Toledo, Ohio |
| Died | November 9, 1995 Monterey, California |
| Education | University of Toledo, 1934; B.A, M.A University of Michigan, 1938 |
| Known for | Photography - Architectural and Landscape |
| Spouse(s) | Frances Baer (neé Manney), an accomplished visual artist |
| Awards | American Institute of Architects Architectural Photography Award, 1966; Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome, 1980 |
Morley Baer (April 5, 1916 – November 9, 1995) was an American photographer and teacher, born in Toledo, Ohio. The former head of the photography department at the San Francisco Art Institute, Baer was well known for his photographs of San Francisco's "Painted Ladies" Victorians and for photos of California's buildings, farmlands and coastline.
Baer learned basic commercial photography in Chicago but subsequently honed his skills as a World War II Navy combat photographer. Returning to civilian life an accomplished professional, over the next few years he developed into “one of the foremost architectural photographers in the world," receiving important commissions from some of the premier architects in post-war Central California. In the early 1970s, very much influenced by a strong friendship with Edward Weston, Baer began to concentrate on his personal landscape art photography. During the last decades of the 20th century, Baer also became a sought-after instructor in various colleges and workshops teaching the art of landscape photography.
Morley Baer was born to Clarence Theodore Baer and Blanche Evelyn Schwetzer Baer, and led an active outdoor life growing up in Toledo. He attended the University of Toledo in 1934 and later transferred to the University of Michigan, from where he graduated in 1937 with a BA in English. He continued there in graduate school and earned an MA in Theater Arts in 1938. Baer soon found a well-paying but dull job in the advertising office of the Chicago department store Marshall Field's, but soon apprenticed as a low-paid menial assistant, at a greatly reduced salary, to a Michigan Avenue commercial photography company. He shortly was photographing in the field, and developing and printing photographs.
Along with two associates, Baer was sent on assignment to Colorado in 1939. Baer had seen an exhibition of Edward Weston’s photographs at the Katherine Kuh Galleries in January of that year, and became enamored at the sparse elegance of Weston's black-and-white prints. He resolved to meet Weston and extended his trip west to California to meet him at his studio in Carmel-by-the-Sea. The two did not meet, but Baer made the most of the trip by visiting San Francisco, the Monterey Peninsula, and the small village of Carmel.
...
Wikipedia