John Loengard

John Loengard

Photograph by Joe McNally, 2010
Born 1934
New York City
Nationality American
Known for Photography

John Loengard, an American photographer, joined the staff of Life magazine in 1961,[1] and from 1973 to 1987 he served as the magazine's picture editor. He has taught at the International Center for Photography, New York, The New School for Social Research, New York, and at workshops around the country. Loengard’s work is in the collections of institutions including the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.; the Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, Arizona; the International Center of Photography, New York, New York; the Menil Foundation, Houston, Texas; and the George Eastman House, Rochester, New York.

Early life

Born in New York City in 1934, Loengard became interested in photography at the age of eleven, when, at the end of World War II, his father spoke of buying a new camera. Loengard began to take pictures for his high school newspaper. In 1956, when he was a senior at Harvard College, Life magazine asked him to photograph a freighter run aground on Cape Cod—an assignment that began Loengard’s long association with the publication. Of his heroes, Henri Cartier-Bresson, W. Eugene Smith, and Robert Frank, Loengard wrote “They mixed their feelings with reportage in strong new ways. It was my plan to do so, too.”[2]

Career

When Life magazine suspended weekly publication in 1972, Loengard became the picture editor of ten semi-annual Life "Special Reports." He was the picture editor of Time Inc.'s Magazine Development Group, planning and launching People magazine in 1974. He was instrumental, in 1978, in Life's rebirth as a monthly.[3] In 1986, that publication won the first award for "Excellence in Photography" ever given by the American Society of Magazine Editors. Loengard continued as Life's picture editor until 1987. He is the author of ten books on photography.

In 2004 Loengard was given the Henry R. Luce “Lifetime Achievement Award” from Time Inc.. In 2005 American Photo magazine identified Loengard as “One of the 100 most influential people in photography.”

“Photographer and picture editor, mentor and oracle, curator and historian, critic and scholar—over the years, John Loengard has assumed all of these roles,” wrote Vanity Fair magazine, “with élan and focus, obstinacy and whip-smart intelligence.” [4]

Exhibitions

Bibliography

Notes

  1. ↑ The Great LIFE Photographers. Bulfinch Press, New York. 2004. p. 3.
  2. ↑ Pictures Under Discussion. Amphoto. 1987. p. 6.
  3. ↑ Time Inc. press release, September 1978
  4. ↑ Vanity Fair magazine online, September 2005
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