How Photography Happened: Andy Grundberg and W.M. Hunt in conversation

07 December 2022

Andy Grundberg and W.M. Hunt both came of age in the photography world in the 1980s and 90s, Grundberg as a writer and Hunt as a collector. They witnessed a great deal, and Grundberg has chronicled it in his most recent book, How Photography Became Contemporary Art: Inside an Artistic Revolution from Pop to the Digital Age (Yale University Press 2021). They have known each other a long time, and Hunt will take the lead as they talk about their lives and loves in the art world over the past 30+ years.

An image of sexual nature will be shown during this talk which some audiences may find explicit.

Copies of Andy Grunberg’s book is available to purchase here.

Andy Grundberg

Andy Grundberg is a critic, writer, curator, and teacher who has been involved with photography and art since the 1970s. As a critic for the New York Times from 1981 to 1991 he covered the rapid ascent of photography within the art world. He later served as director of The Friends of Photography in San Francisco and dean of undergraduate studies at the Corcoran College of Art and Design, now part of George Washington University, Washington, D.C. His most recent book is How Photography Became Contemporary Art (Yale University Press, 2021). Other books include Crisis of the Real (Aperture, 1999), a collection of his articles and essays about photography; Alexey Brodovitch (Abrams, 1989), a biography of the fabled magazine designer; and Mike and Doug Starn (Abrams, 1990). Grundberg earned a BA from Cornell University and an MFA from the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. He is professor emeritus of the George Washington University and lives near Culpeper, Virginia.

 

WM Hunt

W.M. Hunt is a photography collector, curator and consultant who lives and works in New York. Founding partner of the prominent photography gallery Hasted Hunt (now Hasted Kraeutler) in Chelsea, Manhattan, and former director of photography at Ricco/Maresca gallery, Hunt has been collecting photography for over 35 years.

He is a professor at the School of Visual Arts and has been profiled in The New York Times, Art on Paper, Modern Painters (magazine),The Art Newspaper, PBS’ EGG, the Arts Show, as well as BBC’s The Genius of Photography and elsewhere. W.M. Hunt is on the Board of Directors of the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund and The Center for Photography at Woodstock where he was the recipient of their Vision Award in 2009. He also served on the Board of Directors of AIPAD (Association of International Photography Art Dealers) and was the past Chairman of Photographers + Friends United Against AIDS.

During his time as director of photography at Ricco/Maresca gallery and as former curator at Hasted Hunt, W.M. Hunt debuted and represented artists including Wilson Bentley, Elinor Carucci, Luc Delahaye,Jean-Paul Goude, Lisette Model, Erwin Olaf, Eugene Richards, Martin Schoeller, Alex Webb, Joel-Peter Witkin and others.