Lois Conner (born 1951) is an American photographer. She is noted particularly for her platinum print landscapes that she produces with a 7" x 17" format banquet camera.
Early life
Conner was born in New York City in 1951[1] and grew up in southern Pennsylvania.[2] She dedicated herself to the arts from a young age: learning about photography from her father at 9 years old,[3] apprenticing with a painter as a teenager, and later studying fashion design and taking dance, art, and photography classes in New York City.[2] Conner credits Philippe Halsman, her photography teacher at The New School, for her ultimately choosing to study photography.[2]
Education
Lois Conner received her BFA in photography from the Pratt Institute.[4] At Yale University, where she received her MFA in 1981,[4] she met and studied with Tod Papageorge and Richard Benson.[5] She moved to New York City in 1971 where she worked for the United Nations until 1984.[6][2]
Exhibitions
The Sackler Gallery in Washington (National Museum of Art) presented a retrospective of her work, Landscape as Culture, in 1994.[4] Among her other exhibitions were solo shows Asie-la ligne du paysage (1997) in Lausanne, Switzerland, The Silk Road: Trade, Travel, War and Faith (2005) and Twirling the Lotus: Photographs of China and Tibet (2007) in London, Beijing: Unfurling the Landscape (2014) at Australian National University, and A Long View at the Shanghai Center of Photography (2018).[4][3] Recent work has included a series of portraits of pregnant women.[6]
Publications
Books of work by Conner
- China, The Photographs of Lois Conner. Callaway Arts & Entertainment, 2000. ISBN 978-0935112573.[7]
- Lois Conner Photographs. 2003.[7]
- Twirling the Lotus. 2007.[7]
- Life In A Box. 2011.[7]
- Beijing Building. London. Rossi & Rossi, 2011. ISBN 978-1906576219.[7]
- Beijing: Contemporary and Imperial. Princeton Architectural Press, 2014. ISBN 978-1616892487.[7]
- LOST, Beijing. Kris Graves Projects, 2018.[7]
- Lotus Leaves. New Zealand. Wairarpa Academy Occasional Publication No. 1, 2018. ISBN 9780935112573.[7]
Upcoming publications include: American Trees (Yale University Art Gallery) and Beijing Spectacle-Ruination and Reinvention.[8]
Collections
Conner's work is included in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Sackler Gallery in Washington, D.C., the Smithsonian American Art Museum,[1] the Australian National Gallery in Canberra, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the British Library.[8]
Awards
Conner was awarded John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation grants in 1984 and 1985, which enabled her to photograph in China.[1][9][2] She was also the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship[6] and the Anonymous Was a Woman fellowship.[6]
Bibliography
- Beijing: Contemporary and Imperial (2014), Princeton Architectural Press, ISBN 978-1-616-89248-7
References
- ^ a b c "Lois Conner | Smithsonian American Art Museum". americanart.si.edu.
- ^ a b c d e Silverman, Rena (21 May 2014). "A Life Collecting Chinese Landscapes". Lens Blog. New York Times. Retrieved 27 March 2021.
- ^ a b Xiaolin, Liu (April 15, 2018). "US photographer can't get enough of China". SHINE. Retrieved 27 March 2021.
- ^ a b c d "Info". Lois Conner. Retrieved 27 March 2021.
- ^ Yin, Sharon (October 4, 2012). "Art professor Papageorge to receive Lucie Award for photography". yaledailynews.com. Yale. Retrieved 27 March 2021.
- ^ a b c d "Poynter Fellowship: Lois Conner". Yale Office of Public Affairs & Communications. 3 December 2018. Retrieved 27 March 2021.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Publications". Lois Conner. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
- ^ a b Hunter, Fredericka; Glennie, Ian (January 2008). The Wide Open: Prose, Poetry, and Photographs of the Prairie. U of Nebraska Press. p. 197. ISBN 978-0-8032-1871-0. Retrieved 27 March 2021.
- ^ "Lois Conner". John Simon Guggenheim Foundation. Retrieved 27 March 2021.
- Davis, Keith F. 'Wanderlust: Work by Eight Contemporary Photographers from the Hallmark Photographic Collection' (Kansas City: Hallmark, 1987), 81.
- Feinberg, Jean E. 'Wave Hill Pictured: Celebration of a Garden' (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1991), 17-21.
- Princeton University; The Program in Visual Arts; Faculty, s.v. "Lois Conner". Accessed 23 November 2007.
- Union List of Artist Names, s.v. "Conner, Lois". Accessed 10 September 2006.
