CV

Biography

Born 1942 in Teaneck, New Jersey, USA.
 
Died 2018 in Point Richmond, California, USA.

Education

1966
Pennsylvania State University, B.A.
1972
State University of New York at Buffalo / Visual Studies Workshop, M.F.A.

Grants and Awards

1979
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship
1978
National Endowment for the Arts Survey Grant
1977
National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship
1975
National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship
1971
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2022
Henry Wessel. Documentary Style and Beyond, Centro José Guerrero, Granada, Spain
2020
Henry Wessel. A Walk, Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow, Russia
2019
Henry Wessel. Summer Light, Fondation A Stichting, Brussels, Belgium
 
Henry Wessel. A Dark Thread, Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris, France
2018
Henry Wessel. Still Photographs, Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne, Germany
2016
Standard & Icons. Photography by Henry Wessel, Amerikahaus, Munich, Germany
2015
Henry Wessel. Continental Divide, Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne, Germany
2014
Henry Wessel, Tate Modern, London, UK
2011
Henry Wessel. Waikiki, Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne, Germany
2009 – 2010
Henry Wessel. Photographs, Städtische Galerie Wolfsburg, Germany
2008
Henry Wessel. Photographs, Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne, Germany
2007
Henry Wessel. Retrospective, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California
 
Die Photographische Sammlung/SK-Stiftung Kultur, Cologne, Germany
1988
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, California
 
Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island
1987
International Museum of Photography, Osaka, Japan
 
Studies Workshop, Rochester, New York
1973
Museum of Modern Art, New York

Selected Group Exhibitions

2022 – 2023
Joan Didion: What She Means, Hammer Museum, LA,CA,USA
 
MOMAT Collection, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan
2020 – 2021
InterStates of Mind: Rewriting the Map of the United States in the Age of the Automobile, Eli & Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University, Michigan, USA
2018
No Time, McEvoy Foundation for the Arts, San Francisco, California
2017
Autophoto, Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris, France
2014
Road Trip, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France
2011
Seismic Shift, UCR / California Museum of Photography, Riverside, California
 
Here, Pier 24 The Embarcadero, San Francisco, California
 
Sammlung Falckenberg, Phoenix Hallen, Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, Germany
 
Hyper Real - Kunst und Amerika um 1970, Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, Aachen, Germany
 
New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape, SK-Stiftung, Cologne, Germany and Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, Bilbao, Spain
 
NEW TOPOGRAPHICS (Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Joe Deal, Frank Gohlke, Nicholas Nixon, Henry Wessel), Preus Museum, Horten, Norway
2010 – 2011
New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape, Landesgalerie Linz, Austria
2010
New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California
 
Le paradis, ou presque: Los Angeles (1865-2008), Musée Nicéphore Niépce, Chalon-sur-Saone, France
2009
This Side of Paradise: Los Angeles (1865-2008), Musée de l'Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland
2007
Re-SITE-ing the West, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California
2005
Garry Winogrand and the Street Photographers (Mitch Epstein, Lee Friedlander, Joel Meyerowitz, Henry Wessel), Fotografiemuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
 
American Street Photography, Städtische Galerie Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg, Germany
2004
Ditto - Multiples from the Collection, The Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, Illinois
2003
The Gray Area, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, California
2001
Masterpieces of California Photography: Capturing Light, 1850-2000, Oakland Museum, Oakland, USA Beyond Boundaries: Contemporary Photography in California, Ansel Adams Center, San Francisco, California
 
Made in California: Art, Image, and Identity, 1900-Depicting Absence/Implying Presence, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, California
 
Exurbia, Gallery Luisotti, San Monica, California
 
Blind Date, Brent Sikkema Gallery, New York
 
Show Time, Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco, California
2000
Walker Evans & Company, Museum of Modern Art, New York
 
Ditto, James Harris Gallery, Seattle, Washington
1999 – 2000
MOMA 2000, Modern Starts: People, Places, Things, Museum of Modern Art, New York
1999
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California
 
An American Century of Photography, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington
1997
Icons - Magnets of Meaning, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California
 
Backyards, Robert Mann Gallery, New York
 
Rethinking Topographics, Gallery Ram, Santa Monica, California
1996
Crossing the Frontier: Photographs of the Developing West 1849 to the Present, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California
1995
Facing Eden, 100 Years of Landscape Art, de Young Museum, San Francisco, California
 
Seeing Things: Photographs from 1844 to 1995, Andre Emmerich Gallery, New York
1994
Gesture and Pose: Twentieth Century Photographs, Museum of Modern Art, New York
 
New Work, New Directions, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California
1993
Critical Landscape, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Japan
1991
Pleasures and Terrors of Domestic Comfort, Museum of Modern Art, New York
1989
Picturing California: A Century of Photographic Genius, Oakland Museum, Oakland, California
1987
Photographs from the Last Decade, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California
1984
Photography in California: 1945-1980, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California
1983
20th Century Photographs from the MoMa, Museum of Modern Art, New York and Seibu Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan
1981
American Landscapes: Photographs from the Collection of the MoMa, Museum of Modern Art, New York
1978
Mirrors and Windows: American Photography Since 1960, Museum of Modern Art, New York
1975
New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape, International Museum of Photography, Rochester

Selected Bibliography

2019
Henry Wessel. A Dark Thread, Mack, London, UK
2016
Henry Wessel. Traffic / Sunset Park / Continental Divide, Steidl Publishers, Göttingen, Germany
2012
Henry Wessel. Incidents, Steidl Publishers, Göttingen, Germany
2011
Henry Wessel. Waikiki, Steidl Publishers, Göttingen, Germany
2007
Henry Wessel, Steidl Publishers, Göttingen, Germany
2006
Henry Wessel. California and the West / Odd Photos / Las Vegas / Real State Photographs / Night Walk, Steidl Publishers, Göttingen, Germany

Public Collections

Museum of Modern Art, New York
 
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
 
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
 
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
 
Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona
 
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California
 
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, California
 
California Historical Society, San Francisco, California
 
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California
 
Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California
 
Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach, California
 
Oakland Museum, Oakland, California
 
Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, California
 
Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado
 
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts
 
Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
 
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
 
Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington
 
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada
 
Australian National Gallery, Canberra, Australia
 
Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Japan
 
KMS Fine Art Group, Baar, Switzerland
 
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK