John Szarkowski, Photography Curator
One of the most important curators, writers, and thinkers about photography in the latter half of the 20th century died last Saturday at the age of 81. Many people don't realize that photography was not even really considered to be art on the same level as other art forms until Szarkowski championed the value of photography in the early 1970's. Szarkowski was director of photography at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York for 29 years, and was an early promoter of work by Arbus, Friedlander, Winogrand, and William Eggleston. Read more in the New York Times obituary from July 9th. Links to a few of the many great books by John Szarkowski are listed below.