Southport, CT – Philip Trager is a world-renowned photographer celebrated for capturing a number of subjects, including architecture and dance. Trager's photographs are held in private, corporate and institutional collections. In New York, they are held in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, among other museums and societies. Additionally, the Library of Congress has acquired a complete compilation of his photographs and will house his archives as part of its core collections. Trager has published twelve books, including his two upcoming works published by Steidl, New York in the 1970s, and Photographing Ina, an anthology of photographs of his wife.
It is these last two books that Trager will share and discuss at Pequot Library on Sunday, September 25, 2016, from 4:00pm – 6:00pm during the kick-off event of the Library’s Meet the Author series. Participants will have the rare opportunity to view Trager’s photography exhibit, Luminous Photography, in Pequot Library’s Auditorium, while Mr. Trager is there. Luminous Photography will be on view during normal library hours from September 25 – October 23, 2016. Trager’s 30 – 40 minute author talk will include a time for Q & A, plus book sales, signing, and the opening reception for his photography exhibition. The Meet the Author event plus the exhibition are free and all are welcome.
Through his previous books such as, The Villas of Palladio (1986), he established the standard for architectural photography. In his book, Dancers (1992), he captures the natural movements of his expressive subjects. Four of his books have been chosen for The New York Times Book Review Annual Holiday Issue. The luminous and compelling photographs in New York in the 1970s capture the essence of a city in a way best described as “place portraiture.” Trager’s images present the architecture of Manhattan with time-defiant clarity and beauty. Although Trager selected his subjects for aesthetic and visual reasons—rather than from an historical or documentary point of view—with the passage of time his distinctly imaginative photographs have also acquired value as historical documents. The negatives for the images in this book, only recently rediscovered, had originally been archived for printing but Trager began other projects before any prints were made.
From Photographing Ina, an essay by Andrew Szegedy-Maszak:
"Throughout their many years together, Philip Trager photographed his wife Ina during only two distinct periods of time. Photographing Ina presents a selection of photographs from these very different bodies of work: color photographs made between 2006 and 2011, after 50 years together, and black-and-white photographs made after 25 years together. These intimate, openly theatrical images, made in concentrated sessions rather than as an ongoing diary, embody an enduring love and shared passion for art.”
In Photographing Ina Trager, renowned for his black-and-white images, embraces color for the first time. The striking and intimate color photographs reveal Trager’s sophisticated, complex use of color, presenting an unanticipated and layered reality. These photographs are as much about the act of photographing, perception, color, and light as they are about his subject, whose presence is a constant and unifying motif.
Philip Trager was born in Connecticut in 1935. His photographs are, among others, in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of the City of New York, the Musée Carnavalet, the Bibliothèque Nationale and the New York Public Library.
Active as a photographer for fifty years, his distinctly personal photographs of buildings are regarded as landmarks in architectural photography. His expressionistic photographs of dancers in outdoor settings have expanded the genre of dance photography. Photographs in this exhibition, Luminous Photography, at Pequot Library are from his most recent books Photographing Ina and New York in the 1970s both published by Steidl, which also published Philip Trager, a retrospective book, and Faces. Trager’s other published volumes include Echoes of Silences, Philip Trager: New York, Photographs of Architecture, Wesleyan Photographs, The Villas of Palladio, Changing Paris, Dancers and Persephone.
Trager’s books capture the spirit of their subject matter in radiant and compelling photographs that are simultaneously historical documents and emotional, aesthetic expressions of form. His books have received various awards including Finalist for the Grand Prix Award of Les Recontres Internationales de la Photographie, Book of the Year of the American Institute of Graphic Arts and inclusion in the Best Books selections of Interview, Vanity Fair, The Times (London), New York Magazine, Los Angeles Times Book Review and others.
Mr. Trager’s exhibition, Luminous Photography, runs through October 23, 2016. October is National Arts and Humanities Month. How very fortunate Pequot Library is to be able to celebrate the month by sharing with the public, brilliant works by this notable American photographer.
Please visit www.pequotlibrary.org to learn more about this vibrant library, educational, arts and cultural institution. All classes and programs are open to everyone. For information: (203) 259-0346 ext. 15. Follow Pequot Library on Facebook and Twitter. Pequot Library Brings Culture to Life!