William Clift (photographer)

William Clift (born 1944, Boston, MA) is an American photographer known for his black-and-white imagery of landscapes in New Mexico and of architectural subjects. He currently lives and work in Santa Fe, NM.

Early life

Clift was born in Boston in 1944; his uncle was the actor Montgomery Clift. Clift took up photography when he was ten years old using a Polaroid camera, then to buy his own camera spent summers caddying and finding golf balls and taking Coke bottles to recycle. He did no formal training in photography and spent only one year at Columbia University.

With Willem Nyland Clift he studied the Greek-Armenian mystic philosopher G.I. Gurdjieff. His first instruction in photography was a workshop with Paul Caponigro in 1959, when he was fifteen. Since then, two of his books (2007 and 2012) were designed by Eleanor Caponigro.

Photographer

Clift has worked professionally since 1963, and Steve Gersh was his business partner for six years in Cambridge. His projects included photographing a 1970 series for the Massachusetts Council on the Arts, the old Boston City Hall, the Hudson River Valley, and courthouses around the country.

He moved to Santa Fe in 1971 with his wife, Vida, who after 10 years at Harvard. taught at St. John’s while Clift began documenting the landscape of the region, including La Bajada, Shiprock and Canyon de Chelly. In 1977 to 1984 he made portraits of Georgia O’Keeffe and her assistant Juan Hamilton

Clift lives in La Tierra and his studio-cum- gallery is at 203 E. Palace Ave.in the Sierra Vista-Hickox neighborhood.

Awards

Clift is the recipient of two Guggenheim fellowships, two National Endowment for the Arts grants, and a Governor’s Award for the Arts

Exhibitions

Clift has exhibited in five shows at the Museum of Modern Art, New York;

• American Landscapes July 9–October 4, 1981
• Reinstallation of the Collection October 23, 1980–January 3, 1982
• Edward Steichen Photography Center Reinstallation, December 21, 1979
• Mirrors and Windows: American Photography since 1960, July 26–October 2, 1978
• Courthouse, April 12–July 10, 1977

Collections

J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

Publications

Ulmann, Doris; Coles, Robert. New heaven and a new earth. 1974 (1974), The darkness and the light : photographs, Aperture, ISBN 978-0-912334-60-8{{citation}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) Clift, William; Kane, Paul, 1950-, (author.) (2012), Mont St. Michel and Shiprock, Santa Fe, New Mexico Pearmain Press, ISBN 978-0-9797524-3-8 {{citation}}: |author2= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) Clift, William; Kane, Paul, 1950-; Autographed Books Collection (1993), A Hudson landscape, photographs, William Clift Editions, ISBN 978-0-9618165-1-3{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) Clift, William; Amon Carter Museum of Western Art; Art Institute of Chicago (1987), Certain places, William Clift Editions, ISBN 978-0-9618165-0-6 Kennedy, William, 1928-; Clift, William, 1944-; New York (State). Temporary State Commission on the Restoration of the Capitol (1986), The Capitol in Albany, Aperture Book, ISBN 978-0-89381-209-6{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)

External sites

Artist website