Ishi Bar, San Francisco Airport, from "New California Views" portfolio

Maker Landweber, Victor American, b. 1943 Washington, D.C.

Date1977

MediumSilver dye bleach print

Dimensionsimage/paper: 11 in x 14 in; mat: 16 in x 20 in

Credit LineMuseum purchase

Object number1980:63

About the ArtistOne of Victor Landweber’s most recognized series is his work that documents cameras of the 1940s and 1950s. Intrigued by the possibility of using a camera as the camera’s image, Landweber created a set of photographs that seem to both document and advertise the cameras as they appeared in the forties and fifties. In Landweber’s photographs, shining chrome and stylized scripts attract the eye like neon signs. From this series, it is clear that the camera had become just another product to be designed, bought, sometimes used, and then discarded.

The photographs of Victor Landweber can be found in the collections of the Bibliothéque Nationale, Paris, France; the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; the Museet Moderna, Stockholm, Sweden; and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA.

Born in Washington, D.C., Victor Landweber completed a BA at the University of Iowa, Iowa City (1966), and an MFA at the University of California, Los Angeles (1976). The 20/20 portfolio, published in 1985 by UCLA, gathered the work of twenty photographers who had completed the graduate photography program within the last twenty years. Landweber was included along with Ellen Brooks, Gillian Brown, Jack Butler, Darryl Curran, Jo Ann Callis, Judy Coleman, Darryl J. Curran, William Doherty, Sidney Doniger, John Divola, Robbert Flick, Jeff Gates, Graham Howe, Paul Knotter, Kenneth McGowan, Philip Melnick, Patrick Nagatani, Karen O'Hearn, Pat O'Neill, Sheila Pinkel, Scott Rankin, Kenneth Shorr, and Elfie Wilkins-Nacht. Landweber is the founder of Landweber/Artists, which produces limited edition portfolios of original prints in collaboration with well-known photographers. Among others editions, the company has published New California Views, a collection of photographs by twenty California artists, which is held in the Museum of Contemporary Photography’s collection. Landweber lives and works in Berkeley, California.