David Vestal (March 21, 1924 – December 5, 2013) was an American photographer of the New York school, a critic, and teacher.

Career

Vestal was born on March 21, 1924, in

Menlo Park, California Menlo Park is a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County within the San Francisco Bay Area of California in the United States. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, and Stanford to the south; ...

. He studied painting at the Art Institute of Chicago but took up photography during the late 1940s after moving to New York where the majority of his

street photography Street photography (also sometimes called candid photography) is photography conducted for art or enquiry that features unmediated chance encounters and random incidents within public places. Although there is a difference between street and ca ...

and cityscapes were made. From the mid-fifties Vestal exhibited his photography and was included in eight exhibitions at the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

in New York, where his work is included in its collections and at the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

, the

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), ...

, and the

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...

. He was the recipient of John Simon

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 ...

s in

1966 Events January * January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko. * January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo i ...

and

1973 Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, U.S. ...

. A lifelong educator, he taught at

Parsons School of Design Parsons School of Design, known colloquially as Parsons, is a private art and design college located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Founded in 1896 after a group of progressive artists broke away from established Manhatt ...

, the

School of Visual Arts The School of Visual Arts New York City (SVA NYC) is a private for-profit art school in New York City. It was founded in 1947 and is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design. History This school was started by ...

, and at

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York (state), New York. It has a satellite campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The school was ...

, and also gave numerous lectures and workshops around the country. A frequent writer on the medium, his column, "Vestal at Large," was a regular feature in ''Photo Techniques'' magazine, and his books include ''The Art of Black and White Enlarging'' (1984) and ''The Craft of Photography'' (1975). Vestal died on December 14, 2013, at his home in

Bethlehem, Connecticut Bethlehem is a town in Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 3,385 at the 2020 census, down from 3,607 at the 2010 census. The town center is a historic district and a census-designated place (CDP). The town's name h ...

Publications

*David Vestal. ''The Craft of Photography.'' New York:

Harper and Row Harper is an American publishing house, the flagship imprint of global publisher HarperCollins based in New York City. History J. & J. Harper (1817–1833) James Harper and his brother John, printers by training, started their book publishin ...

, 1975. . **Updated edition. New York: Harper and Row, 1975. . *David Vestal. ''The Art of Black and White Enlarging.'' New York: Harper and Row, 1984. . *Douglas O. Morgan, David Vestal and William L. Broecker, eds. ''Leica Manual: The Complete Book of 35mm Photography.'' 15th ed. Hastings-on-Hudson, New York: Morgan & Morgan, 1973. .

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

* Limelight Gallery, ''David Vestal'', January 3-February 14, 1955 * 1987: Galeria del Bosque, Guadalajara, Mexico * 1987: Salon de la Plastica Mexican, Mexico * 1988: Casa de la Cultura Jalisciense, Guadalajara, Mexico * 1989: Daytona Beach Community College, Daytona, FL * 1989: Casa de la Cultura Jalisciense, Guadalajara, Mexico * 2001: A Quiet Light, Robert Mann Gallery, New York, NY * 2010: Once Upon A Time In New York, Robert Mann Gallery, New York, NY.

Group exhibitions

*The Museum of Modern Art, ''Steichen Gallery Reinstallation'', April 2, 1971 * The Museum of Modern Art, ''Recent Acquisitions: Photography'', October 6, 1965 – January 9, 1966 * The Museum of Modern Art, ''Recent Acquisitions'', December 21, 1960 – February 5, 1961 * The Museum of Modern Art, ''Photographs for Collectors'', October 1–16, 1960 * The Museum of Modern Art, 70 Photographers Look at New York, November 27, 1957 – April 15, 1958 * The Museum of Modern Art, ''Christmas Photographs'', November 29, 1951 – January 6, 1952 * The Museum of Modern Art, ''Photographs by 51 Photographers'', August 1–September 17, 1950 * The Museum of Modern Art, Color Photography, May 9–July 4, 1950

Collections

J. Paul Getty Museum The J. Paul Getty Museum, commonly referred to as the Getty, is an art museum in Los Angeles, California housed on two campuses: the Getty Center and Getty Villa. The Getty Center is located in the Brentwood, Los Angeles, Brentwood neighborhood ...

*Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY * Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY * Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York *

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 ...

, New York, NY * Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL *

George Eastman House The George Eastman Museum, also referred to as ''George Eastman House, International Museum of Photography and Film'', the world's oldest museum dedicated to photography and one of the world's oldest film archives, opened to the public in 1949 in ...

, Rochester, NY *

RIT Rit is a brand of dye A dye is a colored substance that chemically bonds to the substrate to which it is being applied. This distinguishes dyes from pigments which do not chemically bind to the material they color. Dye is generally applied i ...

, Rochester, NY *

University of New Mexico Art Museum The University of New Mexico Art Museum (sometimes referred to as the University Art Museum or UNM Art Museum) is an art museum at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. The museum's permanent collection includes nearly 30,000 objects, making ...

, Albuquerque, NM *

Museum of New Mexico The Museum of New Mexico is a collection of museums, historic sites, and archaeological services governed by the State of New Mexico. It currently consists of six divisions : the Palace of the Governors state history museum, the New Mexico Museum of ...

, Santa Fe, NM * Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, FL *

Museum of Fine Arts Houston The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), is an art museum located in the Houston Museum District of Houston, Texas. With the recent completion of an eight-year campus redevelopment project, including the opening of the Nancy and Rich Kinder Build ...

, TX *

Center for Creative Photography The Center for Creative Photography (CCP), established in 1975 and located on the University of Arizona's Tucson campus, is a research facility and archival repository containing the full archives of over sixty of the most famous American pho ...

, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ *

National Gallery of Canada The National Gallery of Canada (french: Musée des beaux-arts du Canada), located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's national art museum. The museum's building takes up , with of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the l ...

, Ottawa, Canada *

University of Louisville The University of Louisville (UofL) is a public research university in Louisville, Kentucky. It is part of the Kentucky state university system. When founded in 1798, it was the first city-owned public university in the United States and one of ...

, KY *

High Museum of Art The High Museum of Art (colloquially the High) is the largest museum for visual art in the Southeastern United States. Located in Atlanta, Georgia (on Peachtree Street in Midtown, the city's arts district), the High is 312,000 square feet (28, ...

, Atlanta, GA * Hallmark Collection, Kansas, MO

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vestal, David 1924 births 2013 deaths American photographers People from Menlo Park, California People from Bethlehem, Connecticut Writers on photographic techniques