A US images archive has introduced that it plans on digitizing a behemoth assortment of labor by Todd Webb (1905–2000), the famend US photographer greatest recognized for documenting the streets of New York and Paris within the instant years following World War II.
The intensive physique of labor, which incorporates some 15,000 prints and a staggering 50,000 negatives created by Webb, was acquired by MUUS Collection, a New Jersey-based archive and platform devoted to Twentieth-century images, who made the announcement final week.
Webb’s post-war photography is celebrated for intimately depicting life spanning wartime austerity through to post-war optimism, with a focus on urban environments.
He was an advocate of “straight photography,” a modernist movement that championed unmanipulated photographs in sharp focus, pioneered by figures including Ansel Adams, a contemporary and friend who influenced Webb.
However, unlike many contemporaries who preferred smaller 35mm cameras, Webb used a large-format camera to capture stark detail, especially architectural lines. His subjects ranged from downtown skyscrapers to children playing in suburban neighborhoods, documenting New York from 1945 onward and Paris between 1949-1953 as the cities transitioned back to peacetime.
Later, in the 1950s, Webb received Guggenheim Fellowships enabling him to document the pioneer trails of early American settlers as he crossed the US on foot from New York City to San Francisco.
Active into the 1980s, Webb also photographed fellow renowned artists and friends, including painter Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986), and photographers Berenice Abbott (1898–1991) and Dorothea Lange (1895–1965).
MUUS Collection also said Webb’s archive includes journals and ephemera documenting the photography community of post-war New York, with plans to also digitize these alongside the newly-acquired prints and negatives.
In November, MUUS Collection will exhibit works by Todd Webb alongside those of pioneering documentary photographer Eugène Atget (1857–1927) at Paris Photo.
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