‘The thing will be alive’: Nancy Newhall and a Vision for Photography

Abstract

From the 1940s until 1974, the American curator, writer and editor Nancy Newhall was a pivotal and visionary figure in the emergence of the field of creative photography in the USA. Newhall’s collaborative work over these decades was foundational in establishing a framework for creative practice in photography – including exhibitions, institutions, publications and public discourse. Newhall’s personal correspondence, in particular, illuminates her bold advocacy in developing a constellation of opportunities to support the practise of and public audience for creative photography, while her published writing and collaborative creative work with photographers created a framework for text and image experiments.