John Loengard facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
John Loengard
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Loengard in 2010
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| Born | September 5, 1934 Manhattan, New York City, US
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| Died | May 24, 2020 (aged 85) Manhattan, New York City, US
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| Nationality | American |
| Known for | Photography |
John Borg Loengard (September 5, 1934 – May 24, 2020) was an American photographer who worked at Life magazine from 1961, and was its picture editor from 1973 to 1987. He taught at the International Center of Photography, New York, The New School for Social Research, New York, and at workshops around the country.
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Early life
Born in New York City in 1934, Loengard became interested in photography at the age of eleven, when, at the end of World War II, his father spoke of buying a new camera. Loengard began to take pictures for his high school newspaper. In 1956, when he was a senior at Harvard College, Life magazine asked him to photograph a freighter run aground on Cape Cod—an assignment that began Loengard's long association with the publication. Of his heroes, Henri Cartier-Bresson, W. Eugene Smith, and Robert Frank, Loengard wrote "They mixed their feelings with reportage in strong new ways. It was my plan to do so, too."
Career
He joined the staff of Life magazine in 1961. When Life suspended weekly publication in 1972, Loengard became the picture editor of ten semi-annual Life "Special Reports." He was the picture editor of Time Inc.'s Magazine Development Group, planning and launching People magazine in 1974. He was instrumental, in 1978, in Life's rebirth as a monthly. In 1986, that publication won the first award for "Excellence in Photography" ever given by the American Society of Magazine Editors. Loengard continued as Life's picture editor until 1987. He was the author of ten books on photography.
He taught at the International Center of Photography, New York, The New School for Social Research, New York, and at workshops around the country.
In 2004 Loengard was given the Henry R. Luce "Lifetime Achievement Award" from Time Inc. In 2005 American Photo magazine identified Loengard as "One of the 100 most influential people in photography." "Photographer and picture editor, mentor and oracle, curator and historian, critic and scholar—over the years, John Loengard has assumed all of these roles," wrote Vanity Fair magazine, "with élan and focus, obstinacy and whip-smart intelligence."
He was inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame in 2018.
Death
He died of heart failure on May 24, 2020 in Manhattan, New York at the age of 85.
Exhibitions
- International Center of Photography, New York City, 1987
- Saidye Bronfman Center, Montreal, Quebec, 1996
- University of Kentucky Art Museum, Lexington, KY, 2007
- The Century Association, New York City, 2009
- George Eastman House, Rochester, NY, 2010
- Henry Fox Talbot Museum, Lacock Abbey, England, 2010
- Celebrating the Negative (traveling exhibition), 2013
- International Photography Hall of Fame, St. Louis, MO, 2019
Collections
Loengard's work is held in the following permanent collections:
- National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.
- Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, Arizona
- International Center of Photography, New York
- Menil Foundation, Houston, Texas
- George Eastman House, Rochester, New York
- International Photography Hall of Fame, St. Louis, Missouri
