Homer Page (1918–1985) was an American

documentary photographer Documentary photography usually refers to a popular form of photography used to chronicle events or environments both significant and relevant to history and historical events as well as everyday life. It is typically undertaken as professional pho ...

whose most famous photographs were taken in New York City in 1949–1950, after he received a grant from the Guggenheim Foundation. Page was born in Oakland, California, and studied art and social psychology at the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

, graduating in 1940. He worked in the shipyards in the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Area during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. His neighbor and later his mentor, photographer

Dorothea Lange Dorothea Lange (born Dorothea Margaretta Nutzhorn; May 26, 1895 – October 11, 1965) was an American documentary photographer and photojournalist, best known for her Depression-era work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA). Lange' ...

, encouraged him to take up photography in 1944. By 1947, he was featured in a major show 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. Page received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1949 and spent a year documenting modern urban culture, primarily by photographing people on the streets of New York City. Most of his subjects appear unaware of his presence. Some of Page's photographs were included in

Edward Steichen Edward Jean Steichen (March 27, 1879 – March 25, 1973) was a Luxembourgish American photographer, painter, and curator, renowned as one of the most prolific and influential figures in the history of photography. Steichen was credited with tr ...

's landmark ''

Family of Man ''The Family of Man'' was an ambitious exhibition of 503 photography, photographs from 68 countries curated by Edward Steichen, the director of the New York City Museum of Modern Art's (MoMA) Department of Photography. According to Steichen, ...

'' exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in 1955. His photographs appeared in publications including

Harper's Magazine ''Harper's Magazine'' is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts. Launched in New York City in June 1850, it is the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. (''Scientific American'' is older, b ...

, and books such as ''The Little World of Laos''. In 1966, he published a collection of his photographs, titled ''Puerto Rico: The Quiet Revolution''. Page produced several photo stories for the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of h ...

from 1957 to 1960. Most of his photographs focused on health in the United States, but he also traveled to Latin America, Asia and Africa to photograph topics including rural health,

yaws Yaws is a tropical infection of the skin, bones, and joints caused by the spirochete bacterium ''Treponema pallidum pertenue''. The disease begins with a round, hard swelling of the skin, in diameter. The center may break open and form an ulce ...

and

trachoma Trachoma is an infectious disease caused by bacterium ''Chlamydia trachomatis''. The infection causes a roughening of the inner surface of the eyelids. This roughening can lead to pain in the eyes, breakdown of the outer surface or cornea of ...

. The bulk of Page's career was spent as a magazine photographer, and, as a result, few of his photographs were in private hands and his work was largely forgotten by the time of his death in 1985, at the age of 67.

Keith F. Davis Keith F. Davis (born 1952) is an American photography curator, collector, and the author of several books on photography. Between 1979 and 2005, Davis built the Hallmark Photographic Collection, spanning the history of American photography. In Dece ...

, Curator of Photography at the

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is an art museum in Kansas City, Missouri, known for its encyclopedic collection of art from nearly every continent and culture, and especially for its extensive collection of Asian art. In 2007, ''Time'' magaz ...

, while researching and writing the first edition of ''An American Century of Photography,'' published in 1995, became aware of Page's non-magazine work. Davis searched for Page's photographs, leading to the discovery of a "lost" photographic treasure. After negotiations with the Page estate, Nelson-Atkins purchased about 100 prints for the Museum's Hallmark Photographic Collection, including many that were one of a kind.

External links

"Homer Page," World Health Organization "The Photographs of Homer Page: The Guggenheim Year, New York, 1949-50," artdaily.org "The Photographs of Homer Page, The Guggenheim Year: New York, 1949-50," edited by Keith F. Davis. Yale University Press, 2009
*Richard Lacayo.
Homer Page: Lost and found
. ''Time'', March 13, 2009. 1918 births 1985 deaths 20th-century American photographers University of California, Berkeley alumni {{US-photographer-stub