[Benares, India]
A reclusive artist who supported himself as a teacher and graphic designer, Gedney photographed Brooklyn streets, coal miner families in Kentucky, and the hippie counterculture in Haight-Ashbury with remarkable sensitivity and grace. During his lifetime, his work was largely unknown outside of a few colleagues and curators, including Lee Friedlander, Diane Arbus, and John Szarkowski, who organized a small exhibition of his photographs at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 1968.
The following year, supported by a Fulbright Fellowship, Gedney made the first of two trips to India. He spent fourteen months in Benares, the sacred city on the banks of the Ganges, where he immersed himself in the study of Hindu culture and photographed on the ghats and in the winding alleys of the old city. His carefully composed images beautifully describe the eloquent physicality and communality of Indian public life.
The following year, supported by a Fulbright Fellowship, Gedney made the first of two trips to India. He spent fourteen months in Benares, the sacred city on the banks of the Ganges, where he immersed himself in the study of Hindu culture and photographed on the ghats and in the winding alleys of the old city. His carefully composed images beautifully describe the eloquent physicality and communality of Indian public life.
Artwork Details
- Title: [Benares, India]
- Artist: William Gedney (American, 1932–1989)
- Date: ca. 1970
- Medium: Gelatin silver print
- Dimensions: Image: 7 5/8 × 11 1/2 in. (19.4 × 29.2 cm)
Sheet: 16 × 20 in. (40.6 × 50.8 cm) - Classification: Photographs
- Credit Line: Twentieth-Century Photography Fund, 2016
- Object Number: 2016.571
- Rights and Reproduction: William Gedney photographs courtesy of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Duke University
- Curatorial Department: Photographs
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William Gedney
1972
William Gedney
1972
William Gedney
1967
William Gedney
1970s
William Gedney
ca. 1970
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