Memorial for John Szarkowski

John Szarkowski, who directed MoMA's photography department from 1962 to 1991, transformed how we understand photography as an art form. His passing in 2007 marked the end of an era in photographic criticism and curation, but his influence continues to shape how we see and think about photographs.

What made Szarkowski revolutionary was his insistence that photography be understood on its own terms. Rather than evaluating photographs by the standards of painting or other visual arts, he articulated a framework specific to the photographic medium. His 1966 book "The Photographer's Eye" outlined five characteristics unique to photography: the thing itself, the detail, the frame, time, and vantage point. Through these elements, he argued, photographers make their art.

Szarkowski championed photographers who might otherwise have remained obscure - most famously Diane Arbus, Lee Friedlander, and Garry Winogrand, whose work he showcased in the landmark 1967 exhibition "New Documents." He recognized in their unflinching street photography a new visual language that broke from the sentimentality of earlier humanist photography.

His greatest legacy may be his recognition that vernacular photography - the snapshot, the family photo album, the news photograph - deserved serious critical attention alongside self-consciously artistic work. By bringing these "plain" photographs into the museum context, he expanded our understanding of what photography could be and do.

As we reflect on Szarkowski's contributions, we might consider how his approaches to looking at and thinking about photographs continue to inform our own engagement with the ever-expanding universe of photographic images that surrounds us.