Hal Gould (February 29, 1920 – June 25, 2015) was an American

photographer A photographer (the Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who makes photographs. Duties and types of photographers As in other ...

and

gallery Gallery or The Gallery may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Art gallery ** Contemporary art gallery Music * Gallery (band), an American soft rock band of the 1970s Albums * ''Gallery'' (Elaiza album), 2014 album * ''Gallery'' (G ...

curator A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...

. He was an advocate of fine art photography and created a venue which eventually became the Camera Obscura gallery at the Denver Art Museum.

Early life

Gould was born in

Clark, Wyoming Clark is a community located approximately 30 miles (50 km) north of Cody, Wyoming, Cody on Wyoming Highway 120, in Park County, Wyoming, Park County, Wyoming, United States. Clark is unincorporated, and has no specific central "town site" per ...

. He grew up on a ranch in New Mexico and left home at the age of 16. After holding a number of different jobs, he entered

dentistry Dentistry, also known as dental medicine and oral medicine, is the branch of medicine focused on the teeth, gums, and mouth. It consists of the study, diagnosis, prevention, management, and treatment of diseases, disorders, and conditions ...

school, but was drafted into the army in 1940. After he was called to duty, he joined E Company, 19th Infantry where he served together with James Jones. Eventually he entered officer school and became a head personnel officer. After the bombing of

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the ...

, he island-hopped with General Douglas MacArthur and remained in Japan during the occupation.

Photography

While Gould held many jobs during his life, including railroad-tie repairer,

boxer Boxer most commonly refers to: *Boxer (boxing), a competitor in the sport of boxing *Boxer (dog), a breed of dog Boxer or boxers may also refer to: Animal kingdom *Boxer crab * Boxer shrimp, a small group of decapod crustaceans * Boxer snipe eel, ...

aviator An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

, and

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ...

, it was his pursuit of photography that would change his life. For nearly a quarter of a century he practised as a portrait photographer, eventually shifting into

fine art photography Fine-art photography is photography created in line with the vision of the photographer as artist, using photography as a medium for creative expression. The goal of fine-art photography is to express an idea, a message, or an emotion. This stand ...

. Gould's own photographic contributions to Camera Obscura Gallery include Western scenery and flora along with pictures from his various travels

Gallery curator

Gould repeatedly asked for the

Denver Art Museum The Denver Art Museum (DAM) is an art museum located in the Civic Center of Denver, Colorado. With encyclopedic collections of more than 70,000 diverse works from across the centuries and world, the DAM is one of the largest art museums between ...

to display fine art photography, but director Otto Bach refused to consider the medium. To make artistic photography available to the public, Gould and others created a venue for displaying works directly behind the Denver Art Museum—eventually this would become the gallery Camera Obscura. This is now one of the oldest galleries dedicated exclusively to fine art photography. Gould's gallery gave

Sebastião Salgado Sebastião Ribeiro Salgado Júnior (born February 8, 1944) is a Brazilian social documentary photographer and photojournalist. He has traveled in over 120 countries for his photographic projects. Most of these have appeared in numerous press p ...

his first show in America, and has been publishing the ''Photography in the Fine Arts Quarterly'' since 1983. Gould hosted his last show as curator of Camera Obscura Gallery featuring his works and those by Gallery associate director, Loretta Young-Gautier, and then closed the Gallery doors to the public after the conclusion of the open house reception for their show on April 30, 2011. According to the March 20, 2011 article in ''The Denver Post'', Gould cites "No sales" brought on by the recent recession as the reason for closing the Gallery. Gould dies on June 25, 2015 at age of 95.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gould, Hal American art curators United States Army personnel of World War II American photographers 2015 deaths 1920 births People from Park County, Wyoming People from New Mexico United States Army officers American expatriates in Japan