Kostiner, Lewis

Born in Montreal, Canada in 1950, Lewis Kostiner received a BA from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island and an MS in photography from the Institute of Design at Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. He taught at Columbia College in Chicago from 1973-81 as an adjunct professor, and in the mid-1970s, he participated in a large-scale photographic survey of courthouse buildings throughout the United States, joining other photographers such as Lewis Baltz and Frank Gohlke. During this period, Kostiner also photographed street scenes and vernacular settings in Chicago and in various states throughout the country, from California to Vermont. Four of Kostiner's black-and-white photographs in the Museum of Contemporary Photography's collection, all dating from 1982, document life along the city's lakefront and in its public parks, centering on families in the middle of leisure activities. Also represented in MoCP's collection are portraits of photographers Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind, both of whom were influential teachers at the Institute of Design. From 1986 to 2004, Kostiner worked as a residential and commercial developer, operating a business he founded with his wife. He returned to photography in 2007, commencing a number of new projects, and was a faculty member of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago from 2007-2012.