John T. Hill

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John T. Hill
NewHaven 0514 0089 crop.jpg
Born1934
NationalityAmerican
Education

John T. Hill (born 1934) is an American artist. His work focuses mainly on design and photography.

Education[]

As an undergraduate at the University of Georgia, Hill studied painting, design, and photography, earning a BFA in design in 1955, and an MFA in painting in 1956. After a tour of infantry duty he continued graduate studies in design and photography at the Yale School of Art and Architecture.

Teaching[]

On graduating, he was asked to join the Yale faculty, where he taught both graphic design and photography. His faculty colleagues from the 1960s and 70s included Alvin Eisenman, Walker Evans, Herbert Matter, Norman Ives, Bradbury Thompson, and Paul Rand.

When Yale's Graphic Design Department was established in 1951 photography was seen as an integral part of the curriculum . Twenty years later, with photography's increased presence in the arts, Eisenman and Hill founded Yale's first Department of Photography, making it independent from its parent, Graphic Design.

Hill served as the department's first Director of Graduate Studies in Photography from 1971 to 1978.

Professional work[]

He began his early studies with hopes of being a painter before evolving into design and photography. During more than twenty years of teaching, Hill continued to work as a photographer, taking pictures for numerous books, magazines, and corporate publications. As a designer, his work is diverse, ranging from US postage stamp design to exhibition installations. Within the last ten years[when?] he has focused primarily on books and exhibition designs, as well as writing.

Executor of Walker Evans' estate[]

Three years before his death, Walker Evans asked Hill to serve as executor of his estate. On Evans' death in 1975, Hill took as a goal the expanded reading of Evans' work. The most common perception was, at best, a bathetic record of the Great Depression in the rural South. For Hill and many others, Evans' work rose high above that limited appraisal to be examined as a more universal statement surpassing the specifics of that time and place. As executor, Hill produced four books for the Evans estate. Others followed, all with that same purpose.[citation needed]

During and after his 19-year tenure as Evans' executor, Hill created many exhibitions of gelatin silver prints made from Evans' negatives. Within the last ten years,[when?] Hill has used the digital techniques of scanning, file adjustment, and digital printing to interpret Evans' images.[1] These digital tools allow maintaining detailed information in both dark and light passages, in a manner not possible with gelatin silver printing. Hill has used these digital files to produce prints, exhibitions, and books that extend the appreciation of Evans' intricate and multi-layered work. These exhibitions have been shown in museums and galleries in France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Korea, New York City, and numerous other American institutions.

With Hill's help, the Evans archive was acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art[2] in 1994. There it has received appreciation for its intrinsic value as the work of one of America's seminal artists. Proper conservation and cataloging can only be realized by an institution with such perception, size, and depth. The major portion of that archive is now available for study online.

Authorship[]

Hill has also produced books presenting the work of wide-ranging talents, including Walker Evans, W. Eugene Smith, Edward Weston, Erwin Hauer, and Peter Sekaer.

In 2013 Hill designed the book Calder by Matter[3] for Cahiers d'Art. It is Herbert Matter's intimate account of Calder's work and his family life for over thirty years.

Books related to Walker Evans produced by J. Hill:

  • alker Evans First and Last
  • Walker Evans at Work
  • Walker Evans Havana
  • Walker The Hungry Eye
  • Walker Evans Lyric Documentary
  • Walker Evans: Depth of Field

A partial list of books[]

Designed, Edited, Authored, Co-authored, or Produced by John T. Hill:

hideList of Books
The Eye of Walker Evans
Walker Evans: First and Last, Evans,[4]
  • Published, Harper and Row, New York, 1978
  • Seker Warburg, London, 1978
  • Design, picture sequence, production, JTH
Walker Evans at Work,[5]
  • Essay, Jerry L. Thompson
  • Published, Harper and Row, New York, 1982
  • Thames and Hudson, London, 1982
  • Concept, design, and picture editing, JTH
Walker Evans Havana 1933 [6]
  • Published, Contrejour, Paris, 1989
  • Pantheon, New York, 1989
  • Concept, design and picture editing, JTH
Walker Evans: The Hungry Eye,[7]
  • Co-authors, John T. Hill, Gilles Mora.
  • Les Editions du Seuil, Paris, 1993[8]
  • Harry N. Abrams. New York, 1993
  • Winner of the Prix de Nadar, Paris and
  • The Krasna Krausz Book Award, London.
  • Design concept and supervision, JTH[9]
W. Eugene Smith Photographs 1934-1975[10]
  • Co-authors, John T. Hill, Gilles Mora.
  • Les Editions du Seuil, Paris, 1988
  • Harry N. Abrams. New York, 1988
  • Thames and Hudson, London, 1988
  • Design and picture editing, JTH and Dorothy Hill
Walker Evans Simple Secrets, [11]
  • Published, High Museum of Art and
  • Harry N. Abrams. New York, 1998
  • Design, picture editing, and production, JTH
  • Honored by the AIGA as one of 50 Books of the Year.
Walker Evans: Depth of Field
  • Co-authors, John T. Hill and Heinz Liesbrock
  • Prestel Verlag, Munich, 2015
Edward Weston: Forms of Passion, Passion of Forms[12]
  • Les Editions du Seuil, Paris, 1998
  • Harry N. Abrams. New York, 1998
  • Thames and Hudson, London, 1998
  • Design and picture editing, JTH and Dorothy Hill
Walker Evans [13]
The Idea of Cuba: Alex Harris[14]
  • Published by University of New Mexico Press
  • In association with The Center of Documentary Studies
  • Duke University, 2003
  • Design, JTH
Herbert Matter[15]
  • Published by Stanford University, 2005
  • On the occasion of the acquisition of the Matter Archive
  • Design, picture editing, separations, and production, JTH
Erwin Hauer: Continua
  • Architectural Screens and Walls
  • Published, Princeton Architectural Press. New York, 2004
  • Design and picture editing, JTH
Walker Evans: Lyric Documentary,
  • Author and picture editor, John T. Hill
  • Published by Steidl, Göttingen, Germany, 2007
  • Book design, and digital separations, JTH
Walker Evans American Photographs
  • Books on Books
  • Errata Editions, New York, 2008.
  • Primary essay, “The Legacy of Seeing,” JTH
Peter Sekaer: Signs of Life
  • Author and picture editor, John T. Hill
  • Published by Steidl, Göttingen, Germany, 2010
  • Book design, and digital separations, JTH
Calder by Matter
  • Essays by Jed Perl and John T. Hill
  • Published by Cahiers d’Art, Paris, 2013
  • Book design, separations, and printing supervision, JTH
May Day at Yale, Recollections 1970[16][17]
  • Co-authors, Henry Chauncey, Thomas Strong, and John T. Hill
  • Published 2015

Photography Exhibitions Produced By Hill[]

List of Photography Exhibitions
Exhibition Location Date
Herbert Matter
  • Photographs by Hebert Matter
Foto Festival, Arles. France. 2000[18]
Peter Sekaer:
  • Photographs by Peter Sekaer
Foto Festival, Arles. France.
Walker Evans: Carbon and Silver
  • Archival pigment prints
  • Produced by John T. Hill and Sven Martson
Evans’ Centennial Exhibition

Yale University Art School Gallery

2003
Walker Evans: Carbon and Silver Museo di Roma, Palazzo Brachi 2005-06
Walker Evans: Carbon and Silver UBS Gallery and Yale School of Art Avenue of Americas 2006
Walker Evans: Carbon and Silver Museo Alinari, Piazza S.M. NovellaFirenze, Italy 2007
Walker Evans: Carbon and Silver Fenimore Art Museum[19]
Cooperstown, New York
June, 2009
The Exacting Eye of Walker Evans Florence Griswold Museum October 1, 2011 - January 29, 2012.
Walker Evans's "Havana 1933" Laguardia Community College 2013
The art of Walker Evans[20] Sandra Naddaff and Leigh Hafrey Three Columns Gallery 2014
Walker Evans: Depth of Field Josef Albers Museum (Bottrop, Germany) September 27, 2015 - January 10, 2016

Exhibitions or work by Hill[]

Four Directions in Modern Photography

Bulldog and Panther Exhibition

Museum collections[]

References[]

  1. ^ Marth, Eric. Printing American Photographs
  2. ^ Metropolitan Museum of Art
  3. ^ "Cahiers d'Art | Shop – Monographs – Calder by Matter, Standard Edition, 2012". www.cahiersdart.com.
  4. ^ Walker. Walker Evans, first and last. HarperCollins Publishers, 1978.
  5. ^ Evans, Walker. Walker Evans at work. Icon, 1994.
  6. ^ Evans, Walker, and Gilles Mora. Walker Evans: Havana 1933. Pantheon, 1989.
  7. ^ Mora, Gilles, and John T. Hill. Walker Evans: the hungry eye. Thames & Hudson, 2004.
  8. ^ Boxer, Sarah. 3 Degrees of Separation on the Road to Art https://www.nytimes.com/1998/08/07/arts/photography-review-3-degrees-of-separation-on-the-road-to-art.html
  9. ^ Grundberg, Andy. Photography Books of the Year. https://www.nytimes.com/1993/12/05/books/photography.html?pagewanted=all
  10. ^ BAURET, Gabriel, et al. W. Eugene Smith: Photographs, 1934-1975. HN Abrams, New York, 1998.
  11. ^ Evans, Walker, Ellen Fleurov, and Benjamin A. Hill. Walker Evans, simple secrets: photographs from the collection of Marian and Benjamin A. Hill. Harry N Abrams Inc, 1997.
  12. ^ Weston, Edward. Forms of Passion: Passion of Forms. Ed. Gilles Mora. Thames and Hudson, 1995.
  13. ^ Mellow, James R. Walker Evans. Basic books, 2008.
  14. ^ Alex Harris. The Idea of Cuba. UNM Press, 2007.
  15. ^ Fernandez, Chantal. Designer’s Life and Work Explored http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2010/02/23/designers-life-and-works-explored/
  16. ^ Avoiding Armageddon in the Elm City: May Day 1970 Recollected http://www.courant.com/community/hc-ugc-article-avoiding-armageddon-in-the-elm-city-may-day-2015-04-12-story.html
  17. ^ Home / Connecticut / Avoiding Armageddon: How the 1970 Riots in New Haven Never Happened Avoiding Armageddon: How the 1970 Riots in New Haven Never Happened http://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/avoiding-armageddon-how-the-1970-riots-in-new-haven-never-happened/
  18. ^ "Presentation of the festival - Les Rencontres d'Arles". www.rencontres-arles.com. Retrieved 2020-01-31.
  19. ^ https://www.fenimoreartmuseum.org/node/1530
  20. ^ Brea, Cathy. The Art of Walker Evans http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2012/01/the-art-of-walker-evans/
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