John Bigelow Taylor (c. 1950) is a

photographer A photographer (the Greek language, 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 photographe ...

works of art A work of art, artwork, art piece, piece of art or art object is an artistic creation of aesthetic value. Except for "work of art", which may be used of any work regarded as art in its widest sense, including works from literature ...

based in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Along with his wife Dianne Dubler, Taylor is known for publishing photographic

monographs A monograph is a specialist work of writing (in contrast to reference works) or exhibition on a single subject or an aspect of a subject, often by a single author or artist, and usually on a scholarly subject. In library cataloging, ''monograph ...

on a diverse range of subjects including architecture and interior design, as well as collections of jewelry and

fine art In European academic traditions, fine art is developed primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from decorative art or applied art, which also has to serve some practical function, such as pottery or most metalwork ...

. His work has been described as "superb" by John Boardman of ''

The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of i ...

'' and "impressive" by Marie Arana-Ward of ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

''.

Career

In the early 1970s John Bigelow Taylor and his partner, Dianne Dubler, traveled throughout

southern Asia Southern Asia may refer to: * South Asia, a geopolitical macroregion of SAARC countries * Southern Asia, a geographical subregion in Asia spanning the Iranian Plateau and the Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a list of the phy ...

; the couple documented the peoples, cultures and locations they encountered while traveling and living in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

and

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...

. After their travels in Asia, Taylor and Dubler were advised by their friend, ''Gillett Griffin'', then curator of

pre-Columbian art Pre-Columbian art refers to the visual arts of indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, North, Central, and South Americas from at least 13,000 BCE to the European conquests starting in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. The Pre-Columbian era c ...

Princeton University Art Museum The Princeton University Art Museum (PUAM) is the Princeton University gallery of art, located in Princeton, New Jersey. With a collecting history that began in 1755, the museum was formally established in 1882, and now houses over 113,000 works o ...

. to concentrate on the photography of works of art. Taylor and Dubler have stated that Griffin's encouragement and guidance greatly contributed to Taylor's career as a

still life A still life (plural: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, m ...

photographer of art, antiquities and architecture. Taylor later collaborated with publisher

Harry N. Abrams Abrams, formerly Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (HNA), is an American publisher of art and illustrated books, children's books, and stationery. The enterprise is a subsidiary of the French publisher La Martinière Groupe. Run by President and CEO Michael ...

on several books including "Wisdom and Compassion : The Sacred Art of Tibet" (1991) featuring photographs of

Tibetan Tibetan may mean: * of, from, or related to Tibet * Tibetan people, an ethnic group * Tibetan language: ** Classical Tibetan, the classical language used also as a contemporary written standard ** Standard Tibetan, the most widely used spoken dial ...

sculpture,

tapestries Tapestry is a form of textile art, traditionally woven by hand on a loom. Tapestry is weft-faced weaving, in which all the warp threads are hidden in the completed work, unlike most woven textiles, where both the warp and the weft threads may ...

and

sand mandala Sand mandala (; ) is a Tibetan Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhist tradition involving the creation and destruction of mandalas made from colored sand. Once complete, the sand mandala's ritualistic Art destruction, dismantling is accompanied by ceremo ...

s, ''The Cycladic Spirit'' (1991) featuring

Cycladic art The ancient Cycladic culture flourished in the islands of the Aegean Sea from c. 3300 to 1100 BCE. Along with the Minoan civilization and Mycenaean Greece, the Cycladic people are counted among the three major Aegean cultures. Cycladic art therefo ...

from the Goulandris Collection in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

, ''The White House Collection of American Crafts'' (1995) with

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...

, ''Gold Without Boundaries'' (1998), featuring sculpture and gold work by the artist

Daniel Brush Daniel Brush (January 22, 1947 – November 26, 2022) was an American painter, sculptor and jeweler. Biography Daniel Brush was born in Cleveland, Ohio. He enrolled at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh in 1965, from which he gradu ...

and ''Waddesdon Manor : The Heritage of a Rothschild House'' (2010), a one-year study of

Ferdinand de Rothschild Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild (17 December 1839 – 17 December 1898), also known as Ferdinand James Anselm Freiherr von Rothschild, was a British Jewish banker, art collector and politician who was a member of the prominent Rothschild family of ...

Waddesdon Manor Waddesdon Manor is a country house in the village of Waddesdon, in Buckinghamshire, England. Owned by National Trust and managed by the Rothschild Foundation, it is one of the National Trust's most visited properties, with over 463,000 visitors i ...

. In 1991 Taylor and Dubler established Kubaba books, a publishing company devoted to produce limited-edition photography books. In an interview with the authors of ''Design Entrepreneur: Turning Graphic Design Into Goods That Sell'', when asked about the origin of the company's name, Dubler explained: "

Kubaba Kubaba (in the ''Weidner'' or ''Esagila Chronicle''), sux, , , is the only queen on the ''Sumerian King List'', which states she reigned for 100 years – roughly in the Early Dynastic III period (ca. 2500–2330 BC) of Sumerian history. A co ...

was the earliest Indo-European name for the great mother-goddess of

Anatolia Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...

." Inspired by their work on the book ''Waddesdon Manor : The Heritage of a Rothschild House'' produced for Scala Art Publishers, Kubaba's focus since 2010 shifted towards producing books that document their clients' private homes and estates; some of these clients have included Jane Stieren and her husband

Bill N. Lacy Bill N. Lacy (April 16, 1933 – August 25, 2020) was an architect, the president of the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, and the president of the State University of New York at Purchase. Early life Lacy was born near K ...

, a former president of the

Cooper Union The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art (Cooper Union) is a private college at Cooper Square in New York City. Peter Cooper founded the institution in 1859 after learning about the government-supported École Polytechnique in ...

and former executive director of the

Pritzker Architecture Prize The Pritzker Architecture Prize is an international architecture award presented annually "to honor a living architect or architects whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produ ...

, as well as Anne Sidamon-Eristoff, a former chairman of the

American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 inter ...

. Taylor also specializes in jewelry photography as demonstrated in photographs of

Elizabeth Taylor Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor (February 27, 1932 – March 23, 2011) was a British-American actress. She began her career as a child actress in the early 1940s and was one of the most popular stars of classical Hollywood cinema in the 1950s. ...

's collection for

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest publ ...

's ''My Love Affair With Jewelry'' (2002), as well as ''Read My Pins: Stories from a Diplomat’s Jewel Box'' (2009), a catalog of

brooch A brooch (, also ) is a decorative jewelry item designed to be attached to garments, often to fasten them together. It is usually made of metal, often silver or gold or some other material. Brooches are frequently decorated with vitreous enamel, ...

es belonging to Secretary of State

Madeleine Albright Madeleine Jana Korbel Albright (born Marie Jana Korbelová; May 15, 1937 – March 23, 2022) was an American diplomat and political scientist who served as the 64th United States secretary of state from 1997 to 2001. A member of the Democratic ...

Books

* ''Within the Underworld Sky: Mimbres Ceramic Art in Context'', June 1984, 162 pages, * ''Pre-Columbian Art from the Ernest Erickson Collection at the American Museum of Natural History'', January 1988, * ''The Cycladic Spirit: Masterpieces from the Nicholas P. Goulandris Collection'', September 1991, 207 pages, * ''The Inca Empire and Its Andean Origins'', October 1993, 251 pages, * ''The Currency of Fame: Portrait Medals of the Renaissance'', March 1994, 424 pages, * ''The Splendor of Ethnic Jewelry'', September 1994, 256 pages, * ''Judith Leiber: The Artful Handbag'', March 1995, 159 pages, * ''Swarovski: The Magic of Crystal'', April 1995, 158 pages, * ''The White House Collection of American Crafts'', April 1995, 128 pages, * ''Masterpieces of American Indian Art: From the Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection'', September 1995, 96 pages, * ''Learning from the Dalai Lama: Secrets of the Wheel of Time'', October 1995, 40 pages, * ''Gioielli Etnici: Africa, Asia, Americhe, Oceania dalla Collezione di Colette e Jean-Pierre Ghysels'', January 1996, 294 pages, * ''The Olmec World: Ritual and Rulership'', March 1996, 344 pages, * ''Art in the Frick Collection: Paintings, Sculpture, Decorative Arts'', September 1996, 208 pages, * ''Wisdom and Compassion: The Sacred Art of Tibet'', September 1996, 488 pages, * ''Kenneth Jay Lane: Faking It'', September 1996, 160 pages, * ''Paul J. Stankard: Homage to Nature'', October 1996, 160 pages, * ''Recycled Re-Seen: Folk Art from the Global Scrap Heap'', October 1996, 208 pages, * ''Venetian Glass: Confections in Glass 1855-1914'', March 1998, 128 pages, * ''Daniel Brush: Gold Without Boundaries'', September 1998, 275 pages, * ''Schmuck: Kostbarkeiten aus Afrika, Asien, Ozeanien und Amerika aus der Sammlung Ghysels'', January 1999, 287 pages, * ''Crosscurrents: Masterpieces of East Asian Art from New York Private Collections'', March 1999, 195 pages, * ''Evidence: The Art of Candy Jernigan'', July 1999, 176 pages, * ''Masterpieces of American Furniture from the Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute'', July 1999, 171 pages, * ''Meyer Schapiro: His Painting, Drawing, and Sculpture'', March 2000, 256 pages, * ''Wisdom and Compassion: The Sacred Art of Tibet'', September 2000, 488 pages, * ''The Splendor of Ethnic Jewelry: From the Colette and Jean-Pierre Ghysels Collection'', March 2001, 256 pages, * ''Waddesdon Manor: The Heritage of a Rothschild House'', May 2002, 320 pages, * ''Divine Presence: Arts of India and the Himalayas'', August 2003, 180 pages, * ''Cincinnati Art-Carved Furniture and Interiors'', November 2003, 295 pages, * ''Elizabeth Taylor: My Love Affair with Jewelry'', December 2003, 240 pages, * ''A Walk through the Ages: Chinese Archaic Art from the Sondra Landy Gross Collection'', January 2004, 224 pages, * ''New Guinea Art: Masterpieces from the Jolika Collection of Marcia and John Friede'', January 2005, 629 pages, * ''Ferdinand Richardt: Drawings of America, 1855-1859'', February 2007, 80 pages, * ''Read My Pins: Stories from a Diplomat’s Jewel Box'', September 2009, 176 pages,

Photographic exhibitions

* ''Microcosm: The New York Chinese Scholar's Garden'', curated by Christophe W. Mao and Judith Whitbeck, Chinese Scholar's Garden at the Staten Island Botanical Garden, April 26–28, 2002 * ''The Armory Wall: A Tribute to September 11'', ongoing traveling exhibition

References

External links

John Bigelow Taylor's official website

Official website for Kubaba
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, John Bigelow American photographers Living people Artists from New York (state) Year of birth missing (living people)