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Martha Joan Swope (February 22, 1928 – January 12, 2017) was an American photographer of theatre and dance.


Early life and education

Born in
Tyler, Texas Tyler is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the largest city and county seat of Smith County, Texas, Smith County. It is also the largest city in Northeast Texas. With a 2020 census population of 105,995, Tyler was the List of cities in Texa ...
, she studied at
Baylor University Baylor University is a private Baptist Christian research university in Waco, Texas. Baylor was chartered in 1845 by the last Congress of the Republic of Texas. Baylor is the oldest continuously operating university in Texas and one of the ...
in
Waco, Texas Waco ( ) is the county seat of McLennan County, Texas, United States. It is situated along the Brazos River and I-35, halfway between Dallas and Austin. The city had a 2020 population of 138,486, making it the 22nd-most populous city in the st ...
, before becoming a student at the School of American Ballet in the 1950s.


Career

Her photography career started in 1957, when
Jerome Robbins Jerome Robbins (born Jerome Wilson Rabinowitz; October 11, 1918 – July 29, 1998) was an American dancer, choreographer, film director, theatre director and producer who worked in classical ballet, on stage, film, and television. Among his nu ...
invited her to photograph rehearsals for ''
West Side Story ''West Side Story'' is a musical conceived by Jerome Robbins with music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a book by Arthur Laurents. Inspired by William Shakespeare's play '' Romeo and Juliet'', the story is set in the mid ...
''. Soon afterwards, Lincoln Kirstein hired her as the first official photographer for the
New York City Ballet New York City Ballet (NYCB) is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company. Léon Barzin was the company' ...
. She photographed figures in the dance world including George Balanchine, Michael Bennett, Joe Papp, and David Merrick. She was known for taking photos onstage while posed in the fourth position. She documented over 800 productions in her lifetime. To her, rehearsals were "where you see the creativity and the interchange, how it grows to what it comes to be onstage". She stopped taking photos when she retired in 1994, saying that "now I think it's somebody else's era".


Death

Swope died from
Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...
on January 12, 2017, at the age of 88.


In media

Her photographs have been featured in many newspapers and journals, including ''
Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for Cell growth, growth, reaction to Stimu ...
'' magazine and ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
''. She donated her archive of 1.5 million images to the
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, at 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, is located in Manhattan, New York City, at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on the Upper West Side, between the Metro ...
at
Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 milli ...
in 2010.


Awards and achievements

In 2004, Swope received a Tony Honor for Excellence in Theater award, and in 2007, she was given a lifetime achievement award from the League of Professional Theater Women.


Legacy

Swope's photographs were displayed in multiple books: ''Baryshnikov on Broadway: Photographs'',
Tanaquil Le Clercq Tanaquil Le Clercq ( ; October 2, 1929 – December 31, 2000) was an American ballet dancer, born in Paris, France, who became a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet at the age of nineteen. Her dancing career ended abruptly when she ...
's ''Mourka: The Autobiography of a Cat'', Kenneth Laws's ''Physics and the Art of Dance'', and Denny Martin Flinn's ''What They Did for Love: The Untold Story Behind the Making of A Chorus Line''.


Personal life

She lived in a brownstone on 72nd Street in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
. She used her bathroom as a darkroom and her closet was her film developing room. Besides ballet and photography, Swope had an immense passion for animals and travel. She rescued and took care of stray dogs. One of her dogs was named "Topo". When she later moved to the
Manhattan Plaza Manhattan Plaza is a large federally subsidized residential complex of 46 floors and at 400 and 484 West 43rd Street in midtown Manhattan, New York City. Opened in 1977, it has 1,689 units and about 3,500 tenants. 70% of the tenants are from ...
apartment complex on West 43rd Street, she adopted a greyhound mix named "Bert". She also visited a sundry mix of places, such as Africa, Switzerland, and Italy. Although Swope had a lively and caring spirit, she was also very private about her personal life and actually avoided going to the theatre "because of crowds".


References


External links


Martha Swope photographs, circa 1955 – circa 2002 (bulk 1957–1994)
held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division,
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, at 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, is located in Manhattan, New York City, at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on the Upper West Side, between the Metro ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Swope, Martha Joan 1928 births 2017 deaths 20th-century American women photographers 20th-century American photographers 21st-century American women photographers 21st-century American photographers Ballet photographers Baylor University alumni Deaths from Parkinson's disease Neurological disease deaths in New York (state) People from Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan People from Tyler, Texas Photographers from New York City Photographers from Texas School of American Ballet alumni Theatrical photographers