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Her life 'on assignment' - Superior native Eshter Bubley ’s work will be on
display through Aug. 7 at the Duluth Art Institute.
Duluth News Tribune (MN) -
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Author: Christa Lawler, Duluth
News Tribune
A wary-looking woman holds a small child. Next to her on
the bench is a toddler dressed in a bonnet, clutching a purse in her lap and
looking toward the ceiling.
The black-and-white photograph taken in the waiting room of the Greyhound Bus
Terminal in New York City in 1947 was featured in the traveling Smithsonian
exhibit “In Focus: National Geographic Greatest Portraits” that hung at the
Duluth Art Institute last summer. It was taken by Esther Bubley
, who grew up in Superior. It was one of the more popular pieces in the
exhibition, curator Anne Dugan said.
The art institute will provide a more complete look at her work with “Esther Bubley
: On Assignment” — a collection of 50 prints shot between 1943-64 — which
opens today and runs through Aug. 7. There will be events throughout the
summer that focus on Bubley’s work in homefront World War II
photography, as well as her commercial work and photojournalism.
Dugan likened Bubley to other significant photographers from
the middle of the century, including Gordon Parks and Dorothea Lang.
“She certainly has strong work and played a role in the pictorial magazines
of the times,” Dugan said. “Her unique eye and compassionate lens were
well-suited for those magazines.”
Bubley died at age 77 in 1998 in New York City, where she
lived much of her life. Her work appeared in national magazines such as Life,
Look, and Ladies Home Journal. Her photos have been displayed at the Museum
of Modern Art in addition to other well-known galleries.
This is the first large-scale retrospective in the community where she grew
up.
EARLY LIFE
Allan Apter of Duluth didn’t recognize the photograph from the bus terminal,
but he knew the name of the artist when he saw it hanging at the Duluth Art
Institute last summer. This has happened to Apter over the years — stumbling
on an image captured by his first cousin.
He told the staff at the art institute that it might be possible to bring in
an exhibition of Bubley’s work. Apter last saw the
photographer in 1947. She visited the area to take industrial photographs. He
drove her to the ore docks and the grain elevators.
“She was very quiet, kind of an unassuming person,” he said. “You’d almost
not be aware of her presence. That was one of the things that made her
photography pretty interesting — the fact that she could shoot pictures of
people at ease, rather than posing.”
While they were never close, Apter said he remembered Bubley
as being interested in photography when she was a young and taking plenty of
family photos. Bubley was the editor of the yearbook at
Superior Central High School. Dugan said the young photographer’s Life
magazine influences can be seen in the cinema verite presentation on the
pages.
AS A PHOTOGRAPHER
Esther Bubley willed her collection of 20,000 photographs
and 11,000 negatives to her niece Jean Bubley of Brooklyn,
who now handles the lending and selling of pieces, as well as esther
bubley .com and questions about the late photographer.
Esther Bubley started out shooting life in boarding houses
in the 1940s. She rode Greyhound buses across the country, capturing the
images of bus travel. She did a series featuring a child’s emergency
tracheotomy while working on a project for the Pittsburgh Children’s
Hospital. Bubley photographed jazz saxophonist Charlie
Parker.
She has a whimsical photograph of Laurel and Hardy mannequins in the door of
a shop, seemingly eyeing a woman who is talking past.
“Esther said when she saw that, she knew if she waited long enough something
good would happen,” said Jean Bubley .
She got an assignment shooting the camera-shy Albert Einstein on his 73rd
birthday, a gig for Life magazine in which she was admonished for taking a
photograph of Einstein walking on the wrong side of the street.
“Who was I to tell Einstein where to walk?” Esther Bubley
said, according to Jean Bubley , who took care of Bubley
in her final years.
Later in her life, Bubley slowed down. She photographed
animals and plants.
“She was an incredible observer,” Jean Bubley said. “She
noticed everything. Nothing got by her. Even at the end of her life and in
the hospital very ill.
“It’s not surprising if you look at her work, if you look at the interesting
things she captured, the special moments and the way she captured the essence
of someone. You feel like you know something about them when you look at her
photographs.”
Caption: Esther Bubley
grew up in Superior but spent most of her life on the road forging a
photography career focusing on the homefront during World War II. Esther Bubley
grew up in Superior but spent most of her life on the road forging a
photography career focusing on the homefront during World War II. Esther Bubley
grew up in Superior but spent most of her life on the road forging a
photography career focusing on the homefront during World War II. Esther Bubley
grew up in Superior but spent most of her life on the road forging a
photography career focusing on the homefront during World War II. Esther Bubley
grew up in Superior but spent most of her life on the road forging a
photography career focusing on the homefront during World War II. Esther Bubley
grew up in Superior but spent most of her life on the road forging a
photography career focusing on the homefront during World War II. Esther Bubley
grew up in Superior but spent most of her life on the road forging a
photography career focusing on the homefront during World War II. Esther Bubley
grew up in Superior but spent most of her life on the road forging a
photography career focusing on the homefront during World War II. Esther Bubley
grew up in Superior but spent most of her life on the road forging a
photography career focusing on the homefront during World War II. This photo
is from a series on the Miss America pageant by Superior native Eshter Bubley
in 1953. Bubley’s work will be on display through Aug. 7 at
the Duluth Art Institute. (Photo courtesy of Duluth Art Institute) Esther Bubley’s
life’s work as an acclaimed photographer included a visit with Albert
Einstein on his 73rd birthday. (Courtesy of Duluth Art Institute)
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