David Bruce Cratsley (December 24, 1944 - June 30, 1998) was an American photographer specialized in still lifes, portraits of friends, and gay life in New York City. He had a reputation of master of light and shadow.

Early life

David Bruce Cratsley was born in

Swarthmore, Pennsylvania Swarthmore ( , ) is a borough in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. Swarthmore was originally named "Westdale" in honor of noted painter Benjamin West, who was one of the early residents of the town. The name was changed to "Swarthmore" after the es ...

on December 24, 1944. Cratsley attended

Swarthmore College Swarthmore College ( , ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the earliest coeduca ...

, graduating in 1966, and then, in the early 1970s, The New School for Social Research, studying under

Lisette Model Lisette Model (born Elise Amelie Felicie Stern; November 10, 1901 – March 30, 1983) was an Austrian-born American photographer primarily known for the frank humanism of her street photography. A prolific photographer in the 1940s and a member ...

Career

Cratsley worked for many years as a gallerist at Marlborough Gallery before quitting in 1986 to become a full-time photographer. As "Bruce Cratsley", he exhibited in various New York galleries, like: Laurence Miller Gallery, Howard Greenberg Gallery and Witkin Gallery. Cratsley was represented by

Yancey Richardson Gallery Founded in 1995, the Yancey Richardson Gallery is a dealer of fine art photography, based in New York City and founded by Yancey Richardson. Formerly housed in the 560 Broadway building in Soho, the gallery moved to New York's Chelsea art district ...

, a dealer of fine art photography based in SoHo. In 1978 Cratsley contributed the photo sequences for the musical ''The Class'', performed by The New Ballet School at the New York City Center. In 1980, Cratsley's work, ''Atlantic City, 1977'', an August beach scene, exhibited at the 11th Anniversary show at the Witkin Gallery, sold for $175. In 1989 Cratsley was awarded with the

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

for Photography, US & Canada. Cratsley documented his life with David Waine, who died in 1991. "I'd been photographing David since long before he became sick ..at some point I realized that this was an extraordinary thing that was happening, and that I had an intimate relationship to it. I photographed David just a few hours before he died, not knowing what was about to happen ..David was very spiritual ..My pictures are a poetic, spiritualized look at AIDS". In 1995 Cratsley was included together with Barbara Norfleet,

Olivia Parker Olivia Parker (born 1941) is a Manchester-by-the-Sea-based American still-life photographer. Early life and education Parker was born in Boston in 1941. She graduated from Wellesley College with a bachelor's degree in art history in 1963. C ...

and John Sturges in the list of bestselling photographer at Robert Klein Gallery, Boston. Cratsley's B&W photos sold quickly at a starting price of $400. Klein said of Cratsley: "Bruce transforms commonplace things through a keen sense of light and composition, and very skilled printing". Cratsley documented the Lesbian and Gay life, and in particular the New York City LGBT Pride March. Another event he documented was

Wigstock Wigstock was an annual outdoor drag festival that began in 1984 in Manhattan's East Village that took place on Labor Day. Continuing, with a few gaps, until 2005, the festival would traditionally act as the unofficial end to the summer for the ...

, an annual outdoor drag festival that began in the 1980s in Manhattan's East Village that took place on Labor Day. Pictures from both events are now at the

New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States (behind the Library of Congress ...

, in their permanent collection. In 1999, Cratsley was included in the volume ''Desire: contemporary photography from the visual AIDS archive project''. In 2011 a photograph by Cratsley, ''Louvre Window, Paris, 1980'', signed and dated, sold at $300. On September 15, 2016, Ron Tarver, Swarthmore Instructor of Studio Art and

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...

, gave a lecture about Cratsley, Swarthmore graduate, at LPAC (Lang Center for the Performing Arts). Works by Cratsley are also at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the

Bibliothèque nationale de France The Bibliothèque nationale de France (, 'National Library of France'; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites known respectively as ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository ...

and the Harvard Art Museums.

Exhibitions

* April 1987, Witkin Gallery, with Fay Godwin, Photographs that imply hidden sensations and mysteries. * April 1992, Goldberg Gallery, B&W portraits, street scenes, figure studies and still lifes. * July 1993, Howard Greenberg Gallery, with Sabine Weiss, B&W photographs of still life, landscapes and shop windows with mannequins. * 1994, Motel Gallery, B&W photographs of the New York City Gay and Lesbian Pride Parade taken between 1983 and 1993. * February 1996, Yancey Richardson Gallery, works from 1976 to 1995, including portraits of friends, images of tabletop arrangements, mannequins in street windows, museum interiors, and drag queens at the June Gay Pride Parade. * July 1996, ''By the Sea'', Yancey Richardson Gallery, with

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, Fairfield Porter,

David True David True (born 1942) is an American painter, born in Marietta, Ohio. He received a BFA from Ohio University in 1966 and an MFA from Ohio University in 1967. In 1978, he was included in the New Image Painting exhibition at the Whitney Museum o ...

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and others. * December 1996, ''Bruce Cratsley: Master of Light and Shadow'',

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...

; Cratsley referred to the photos as "snapshots, really, though carefully made". They were 22 images that reflected Cratsley's personal experiences with spirituality, life and death. ''White Light, Silent Shadows'', a monograph of Cratsley, was published in 1998 by Arena Editions, few months before Cratsley's death. * December 1997, ''Photographs of Paris'', Yancey Richardson Gallery, with André Kertész and

Todd Webb Todd Webb (September 5, 1905 – April 15, 2000) was an American photographer notable for documenting everyday life and architecture in cities such as New York City, Paris as well as from the American west. He traveled extensively during his l ...

. * May 1999, ''Bruce Cratsley, photographs'', Paul Kopeikin Gallery, Los Angeles. * September 1999, ''Female'', curated by Village Voice photography critic Vince Aletti, Wessel + O'Connor Gallery, with nearly 100 photographers, including gay artists like

George Platt Lynes George Platt Lynes (April 15, 1907 – December 6, 1955) was an American fashion photography, fashion and advertising, commercial photographer who worked in the 1930s and 1940s. He produced photographs featuring many gay artists and writers from ...

, Cecil Beaton, John Dugdale, Lyle Ashton Harris,

Horst P. Horst Horst P. Horst (born Horst Paul Albert Bohrmann; August 14, 1906November 18, 1999), was a German-American fashion photographer. Early life The younger of two sons, Horst was born in Weißenfels-an-der-Saale, Germany, to Klara (Schönbrodt) and ...

, Peter Hujar, Bill Jacobson, Hiromitsu Morimoto and Andy Warhol. * September 2016, ''Bruce Cratsley: Shifting Identities'', List Gallery, Swarthmore College, B&W photographs from 1977 to 1998. * November–December 2017, Bruce Cratsley : Intimate Light, Gallery Kayafas, Boston MA. 15 Vintage Gelatin Silver Prints, many never published.

Personal life

David Waine, Cratsley's lover who he often portrayed, died of AIDS-related illness in 1991. At the time of his own death, Cratsley was in a long-term relationship with William Leight. Cratsley was a good friend of Elsa Dorfman; they met through Cratsley's brother John. "We're long distance friends. The phone. No email. No fax. He's star 90 from every phone in my house and in my studio." Elsa Dorfman Cratsley died on June 30, 1998, from causes related to HIV/AIDS.

References

External links

Bruce Cratsley Papers (MS 1836).
Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library. {{DEFAULTSORT:Cratsley, Bruce 1944 births 1998 deaths Photographers from New York (state) Architectural photographers Swarthmore College alumni American LGBT photographers People from Delaware County, Pennsylvania 20th-century American LGBT people