Lumiere » Blog Archive » Peter Sekaer . . . . . . . in Context

Berenice Abbott - A Zitto's Bakery, NY, 1937

Silver Gelatin Print - 14.75 x 18.5

Peter Sekaer - Child in Window, Louisville, Kentucky, n.d.

Silver Gelatin Print - 9 5/8 X 11 3/8

Dorothea Lange - Black Child on Porch, Behind Beans, 1938

Silver Gelatin Print - 10.75 x 10.5

Peter Sekaer - Poydras Street, New Orleans, c.1938

Silver Gelatin Print - 6 1/2 X 9 1/2

Dorothea Lange - Country Store, Alabama, 1938

Silver Gelatin Print - 9.25 x 13

Arnold Newman - Jackon's Wood Yard, West Palm Beach, FL, 1941

Silver Gelatin Print - 8 x 10

Peter Sekaer - Warren Street : Wooden Shacks, large factories in background, Nashville, Tennessee, April 1938

Silver Gelatin Print - 6 1/4 X 9 1/2

Peter Sekaer - Farmer, Dalton, Georgia, c. 1935-36

Silver Gelatin Print - 8 3/4 X 6 7/8

Alexander Rodchenko - Cigarette Girl, Pushkinskaya Square, 1927

Silver Gelatin Print - 7x9

John Gutmann - Selling Apples at No.1 Broadway. New York, 1936

Silver Gelatin Print - 8x10

Dorothea Lange - Man with Hat Depression, 1937

Silver Gelatin Print - 12.13 x 10.13

Peter Sekaer - Untitled (Wm. Goldberg, 771 Bway), c.1937

Silver Gelatin Print - 7 x 8.65 (8 X 10 paper)

John Gutmann - Barber School. Bowery, New York City, 1936

Silver Gelatin Print - 11x14

Peter Sekaer - Untitled - James A. Rourke Machine Co., Savannah, c. 1936

Silver Gelatin Print - 8 1/2 X 6 1/2

Dorothea Lange - White Angel Bread Line, San Francisco, 1933

Silver Gelatin Print - 10 x 8

Peter Sekaer - Untitled (tenement street with laundry), c.1936

Silver Gelatin Print - 7 1/2 X 9 5/8

John Gutmann - Waiting, Mobile, Alabama. 1937

Silver Gelatin Print - 11x14

Peter Sekaer - Phrenologist's Window, New Orleans, 1936

Silver Gelatin Print - 6.85 x 8.85 (11x14 paper)

John Gutmann - Ben's Barbershop Window. Streamlined Haircuts. 1946

Silver Gelatin Print - 11x14

Peter Sekaer - Restaurant, South Carolina, c. 1935-36

Silver Gelatin Print - 3 3/4 X 4 7/8

Arnold Newman - Letters, NY, NY, 1941

Silver Gelatin Print - 8 x 8.5

Peter Sekaer - Ice Cream Cone, Bowling Green, Virginia, c.1935

Silver Gelatin Print - 3 7/8 X 4 7/8

Arnold Newman - One Way, West Palm Beach, FL, 1941

Silver Gelatin Print - 8 x 10

Peter Sekaer - New York City, Times Square, c.1935

Silver Gelatin Print - 4 1/4 X 3 5/8

Berenice Abbott - Pike and Henry Street, NY,1936

Silver Gelatin Print - 11 x 14`

Peter Sekaer - New Orleans, c. 1936

Silver Gelatin Print - 4 3/4 X 3 5/8

John Gutmann - W.P.A. San Francisco, 1937

Silver Gelatin Print - 11x14

Peter Sekaer - Untitled - Signs on Sidewalk, c. 1937

Silver Gelatin Print - 9 1/2 X 7 1/2 (8x10 paper)

Rondal Partridge - Falling Ice, New York City, 1940

Silver Gelatin Print - 8.75 x 6.875

Alexander Rodchenko - Turn of the Street Car Line, 1932

Silver Gelatin Print - 7x8.5

This exhibition features the photography of Peter Sekaer, with comparable imagery from
notable artists of the period. They add context and underscore the excellence of his work.

Peter Sekaer . . . in Context

This exhibition features the photography of Peter Sekaer, with comparable imagery from notable artists of the period. They add context and underscore the excellence of his work.

Peter Sekaer: born in Denmark, immigrated to the United States in 1918. After successfully operating a printing business in New York City, he enrolled in the Art Students League in 1929 to study painting. By 1934 Sekaer left painting to study photography with Berenice Abbott. Through his friendship with Walker Evans he secured contracts to work on assignment as a photographer for various government agencies (1936 to 1943).

Dorothea Lange: Many of the most iconic images from The Great Depression were captured by her eye. All of her work, in America, Asia and Ireland, combines a sense for the camera with empathy for the subject. “The human face,” she said “is the universal language.”

John Gutmann: Raised and educated in Germany, he viewed America with fresh eyes and optimism. While Farm Security Administration photographers recorded Depression era suffering, Gutmann saw humor in signage and graffiti. He was also fascinated with America’s obsession with the automobile.

Alexander Rodchenko: His photography was socially engaged, formally innovative, and opposed to a painterly aesthetic. Concerned with the need for analytical-documentary photo series, he often shot his subjects from odd angles—usually high above or below—to shock the viewer and to postpone recognition.

Berenice Abbott: Influenced early in her career by Atget in Paris, Abbott excelled at photographing the unique American environment. From 1935-1939, she completed the project that is the centerpiece of her career: documenting a Changing New York. In 1934 Abbott influenced Sekaer as his first photography teacher.

Arnold Newman: His early work – the studies of light and shadow, texture, city streets and people in their own homes or neighborhoods – was formative for him. He learned to experiment with composition and form, and to be mindful of both the history he documented and that which had come before.

Rondal Partridge: Dorothea Lange’s assistant and driver through many of her 1930’s projects, Partridge was greatly influenced by her and his mother, Imogen Cunningham. His diverse subject matter ranged from California migrant worker camps, to street scenes, to signage reflecting his keen sense of humor.