Literature

“I had the Guggenheim, I had photos in the Museum of Modern Art and I was starving!”~ Max Yavno Max was one of the great American photographers of his era and the first photographer I met when I moved to California in 1979. He was the great Chronicler of Los Angeles in the same way Berenice Abbott was the great chronicler of New York. I learnt so much from him about the logistics of the city and its hidden urban beauty.He was accorded many awards including the Guggenheim in 1951 and no less a curatorial giant than Edward Steichen selected 20 of his photographs for the permanent collection of New York’s Museum of Modern Art the year before in 1950. But he struggled most of his life to actually earn a living from his talent, not an unusual story sadly.His hand-crafted, dark room prints are just amazing to behold especially this one with its" film noir" graphic simplicity. What an eye!