Farrell Grehan

Farrell Grehan (1926–May 6, 2008) was an American photojournalist, travel and nature photographer of the period from the 1950s to the 2000s whose work appeared in magazines and books.

Early life

Born in 1926 in New York, before taking up photography, Farrell Grehan studied art at the Art Students League with Yasuo Kuniyoshi and Will Barnet, and there met Elisabeth S. Stevens (1929–2018), journalist and future art and architecture critic for The Baltimore Sun, and they married in 1959[1] after he had become a professional photographer in 1956. The marriage ended in divorce and in 1967 she married Robert C. Schleussner, Jr., an engineer and executive.

Career

Grehan was for twelve years[2] a contract photographer[3] for LIFE magazine[4] as well as photographing In the Low Countries and Switzerland for its book publishing arm Life World Library books,[5] and was considered one of the magazine's great photographers.[6] His pictures were published also in National Geographic, The Saturday Evening Post, Avenue, World and I,[7] Sports Illustrated and other publications.

Farrell's career spanned from 1950s to the 2000s and he worked in locations that included Burma, Lapland, Yemen,[8] Aran Islands, Egypt,[9] Bethlehem,[10] Crete,[8] Moscow[11] and Prague. In America he photographed Walden Pond, Allagash, the World Trade Center,[12] Hopi Indian nation, national parks, Okefenokee Swamp Park[13] Mackinac Island. For LIFE he documented urban renewal in New York[14] and made photographs of architectural structures by Roberto Burle Marx and Frank Lloyd Wright[15] that represent them in their settings,[16][17] an approach he applied to his full-colour imagery of American wildflowers.[5] He had been making floral studies as a hobby before showing them to publishers in 1959. Their response was positive, and they described his pictures as having “the delicacy of a Japanese painting. Occasionally one sees through flowers in the foreground to focus upon a blossom sharply defined. No other flower photographs have captured their subjects with such sensitivity to colour and form.” Such framing-in-depth is evident in his picture City Child which in 1953 had won a $2,000 award,[18] and was chosen in 1955 by Edward Steichen for MoMA's world-touring The Family of Man exhibition that was seen by 9 million visitors;[19][20] Grehan's camera candidly observes through broken fence palings a young girl alone and lost in her thoughts in an overgrown, neglected city garden.[21]

Grehan's notable portrait subjects included artists Salvador Dali, Alexander Calder, David Alfaro Siqueros, Hans Erni, Man Ray[22] and Marcel Duchamp,[23] the conductor Pierre Monteux, psychologist Jean Piaget,[24] golfer Arnold Palmer, author Friedrich Durrenmatt, industrial designer Russel Wright,[25][26] and the dancers Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham[27] and Gelsey Kirkland.

Grehan died on May 6, 2008 and was interred at Rockland Cemetery in Sparkill, NY.  He was survived by his former wife Yvonne, two sons and two grandsons.[28]

Exhibitions

Grehan's works were included in six Museum of Modern Art group exhibitions;

  • 1953, February 26–April 1, Always the Young Strangers, Museum of Modern Art, New York
  • 1955, January 24–May 8, The Family of Man, Museum of Modern Art, New York
  • 1958, November 26–January 18, 1959, Photographs from the Museum Collection, Museum of Modern Art, New York
  • 1960, February 17–April 10, A Sense of Abstraction, Museum of Modern Art, New York[29]
  • 1965, March 16–May 16, The Photo Essay, Museum of Modern Art, New York
  • 1968, February 9–March 31, Ben Schultz Memorial Exhibition, Museum of Modern Art, New York

Books
  • Grehan, Farrell; Wright, Frank Lloyd, 1867-1959 (1997), Visions of Wright (1st ed.), Little, Brown, ISBN 978-0-8212-2470-0CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  • Farrell Grehan; Rickett, Harold William, 1896- (1964), The Odyssey book of American wildflowers, New York Odyssey Press, retrieved 5 October 2019CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  • Kalokyrēs, Kōnstantinos D (1973), The Byzantine wall paintings of Crete, Red Dust, ISBN 978-0-87376-023-2
  • Tom Melham; Grehan, Farrell; National Geographic Society (U.S.). Special Publications Division (1976), John Muir's wild America, Washington National Geographic Society, ISBN 978-0-87044-186-8
  • National Geographic Society (U.S.) (1984), Great rivers of the world (1st ed.), Washington, D.C National Geographic Society, ISBN 978-0-87044-539-2

Bibliography
  • Chapter in Loengard, John; Parks, Gordon, 1912-2006; Life magazine (2004), The great Life photographers, Thames & Hudson, ISBN 978-0-500-54293-4CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

References
  1. Obituary, NYTimes.com June 23/24, 2018
  2. Modern Photography, Volume 41, 1977, Page 23
  3. Inc, Time (1970-11-20). LIFE. Time Inc.
  4. LIFE, 20 Nov 1964, pages 89-99, Vol. 57, No. 21, ISSN 0024-3019, Time Inc.
  5. Farrell Grehan; Rickett, Harold William, 1896- (1964), The Odyssey book of American wildflowers, New York Odyssey Press, retrieved 5 October 2019CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. Loengard, John; Parks, Gordon, 1912-2006; Life magazine (2004), The great Life photographers, Thames & Hudson, ISBN 978-0-500-54293-4CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  7. Grehan, Farrell. "There were lovely days." The World & I 17.2 (2002): 212.
  8. Pilachowski, D. (1979). Smithsonian. Serials Review, 5(1), 9-11.
  9. Butzer, Karl W; Abercrombie, Thomas J; National Geographic Society (U.S.) (1978), Ancient Egypt : discovering its splendors (1st ed.), National Geographic Society, ISBN 978-0-87044-220-9
  10. 'BETHLEHEM: Twenty centuries after the birth of Christ, it is still a place of beauty and worship. A picture essay by Farrell Grehan.' In LIFE, December 15, 1972; Vol 73, No 24
  11. Schwartz-Driver, Stephanie (2009), Economic literacy : a complete guide, Marshall Cavendish, p. 36, ISBN 978-0-7614-7910-9
  12. Rajs, Jake (2001), Sometime lofty towers : a photographic memorial of the World Trade Center, Browntrout Publishers, ISBN 978-0-7631-5472-1
  13. LIFE, 3 Sep 1971, Vol. 71, No. 10, ISSN 0024-3019, Time Inc.
  14. Kessel, Dmitri, and Farrell Grehan. "A Newer New York." Life, August 10 (1959): 56-67.
  15. Grehan, Farrell; Wright, Frank Lloyd, 1867-1959 (1997), Visions of Wright (1st ed.), Little, Brown, ISBN 978-0-8212-2470-0CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  16. "The Taliesin estate".
  17. "Book Design". Bruce Kennett Studio. 2017-12-18. Retrieved 2019-10-05.
  18. Newsweek, Volume 42, 1953, Page 60
  19. Hurm, Gerd, 1958-, (editor.); Reitz, Anke, (editor.); Zamir, Shamoon, (editor.) (2018), The family of man revisited : photography in a global age, London I.B.Tauris, ISBN 978-1-78672-297-3CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  20. Sandeen, Eric J (1995), Picturing an exhibition : the family of man and 1950s America (1st ed.), University of New Mexico Press, ISBN 978-0-8263-1558-8
  21. Steichen, Edward; Sandburg, Carl; Norman, Dorothy; Lionni, Leo; Mason, Jerry; Stoller, Ezra; Museum of Modern Art (New York) (1955). The family of man: The photographic exhibition. Published for the Museum of Modern Art by Simon and Schuster in collaboration with the Maco Magazine Corporation.
  22. "Grehan, Farrell. Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray. Cadaquès, Spain, 1963 | Philadelphia Museum of Art Archives". pmalibrary.libraryhost.com. Retrieved 2019-10-05.
  23. "Grehan, Farrell. Marcel Duchamp and Alexina Duchamp at the chess club. Cadaquès, Spain, August 1, 1963 | Philadelphia Museum of Art Archives". pmalibrary.libraryhost.com. Retrieved 2019-10-05.
  24. Brain, C. (2001). Advanced psychology: applications, issues and perspectives. Nelson Thornes.
  25. Wright, Russel; Pilgrim, Dianne H; McHarg, Ian L; Holzman, Malcolm, 1940- (2001), Russel Wright, good design is for everyone, in his own words : designs for living, home, woodland garden, Manitoga/The Russel Wright Design Center : Universe, ISBN 978-0-9709459-1-4CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  26. 'PHOTOGRAPHIC ESSAY: A wonderful house to live in: RUSSELL WRIGHT's eleven-level home, Dragon Rock. Photographed for LIFE by Farrell Grehan.' In LIFE, March 16, 1962; Vol. 52 No. 11
  27. Vaughan, David; Harris, Melissa (1997), Merce Cunningham : fifty years (1st ed.), Aperture, ISBN 978-0-89381-624-7
  28. Obituraries, The New York Times, May 8, 2008
  29. Bronstein, Herbert (February 1969). "MoMA Press Release for 'A Sense of Abstraction'" (PDF). Museum of Modern Art.
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