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Peter Stackpole
Peter Stackpole (June 15, 1913 – May 11, 1997) was an American photojournalist. He was one of Life magazine's first staff photographers and remained with the publication until 1961. Stackpole shot 26 cover portraits for the magazine.
He first gained notice for his photos of bridge construction in the San Francisco Bay in the 1930s. Hired by Life magazine, he captured many notable snapshots of film stars in the 1940s and 1950s. During World War II, his combat camera work during the Battle of Saipan was praised. He won a George Polk Award in 1953 for a photograph of a diver 100 feet under water, and he taught photography at the Academy of Art University. He also wrote a column in U.S. Camera for fifteen years. He was the son of sculptor Ralph Stackpole.
Peter Stackpole was born at St. Francis Memorial Hospital in San Francisco in 1913 to sculptor Ralph Stackpole and painter/designer Adele Barnes who had married in 1912. In 1922, the Stackpoles moved to Paris where the marriage fell apart from the father's adultery. Ralph Stackpole left Paris with artist's model Francine "Ginette" Mazen, returning to San Francisco, the two eventually marrying in Mexico. Peter and his mother stayed in Paris while Stackpole continued his schoolwork at École alsacienne and a primary school in the 14th arrondissement of Paris through the first half of 1924. After she agreed to a divorce, Stackpole's mother moved herself and her son to Oakland, California.
Stackpole attended Oakland Technical High School and developed an interest in photography. His first camera was a compact Agfa Memo hobbyist model, but his second was the well-made Leica Model A that he used more seriously. He apprenticed to the photographer of Oakland's Post-Enquirer newspaper in 1931. His small format 35mm Leica allowed him to capture more action as it unfolded than the other newspaper photographers who preferred larger film cameras mounted on tripods for their higher quality. His 1933 ringside snapshot of prizefighter Max Baer was dismissed by the newspaper editors because it was unposed, taken only with available light.
As the only child of well-connected artists, Stackpole met famous people such as American photographers Dorothea Lange and Edward Weston, and Mexican painters Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera; Rivera painted an image of teen-aged Stackpole playing with a model airplane into his mural titled Allegory of California (1931). Stackpole was driven by his father to visit with Weston in Carmel-by-the-Sea, where Stackpole listened to Weston speak of the intention and composition behind the photograph which makes it art. In 1932, Stackpole was exposed to more fine art photography at the De Young Museum which was exhibiting works by Weston, Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, Willard Van Dyke and other photographers associated with Group f/64 in San Francisco. This experience gave Stackpole more motivation to put intention and composition into his photography.
Stackpole's candid photo of ex-president Herbert Hoover dozing off in 1934 during a commencement speech delivered by Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins was refused by publisher William F. Knowland of the Oakland Tribune, but it was purchased by Time magazine, and it led to freelance work.
At the age of 20 in 1933, Stackpole began documenting the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge with his hand-held Leica. He captured images of iron workers in action and at rest, and took stunning vistas from the tops of the bridge towers. In 1934, his bridge photography was recognized by Willard Van Dyke, who granted Stackpole honorary membership in Group f/64, despite Stackpole's more dynamic hand-held photojournalist style. Twenty-five of Stackpole's bridge photos were exhibited in 1935 at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, cementing Stackpole's reputation. At the suggestion of Imogen Cunningham, Stackpole submitted his photos to Vanity Fair magazine which published two pages of them in July 1935. The magazine U.S. Camera also published his bridge construction shots, and Ansel Adams included them in the 1940 multi-artist collective exhibition he curated called A Pageant of Photography, shown to millions of visitors at the Golden Gate International Exposition in the middle of the San Francisco Bay.
In a return to high steel work in April 1951, Life magazine published Stackpole's photos of the construction of Delaware Memorial Bridge, in a photo essay titled "High Steel". Stackpole released a book of his bridge photos in 1984 through Pomegranate Artbooks, titled The Bridge Builders: Photographs and Documents of the Raising of the San Francisco Bay Bridge, 1934–1936, with text written by Anita Mozley of Stanford University Museum of Art.
Peter Stackpole
Peter Stackpole (June 15, 1913 – May 11, 1997) was an American photojournalist. He was one of Life magazine's first staff photographers and remained with the publication until 1961. Stackpole shot 26 cover portraits for the magazine.
He first gained notice for his photos of bridge construction in the San Francisco Bay in the 1930s. Hired by Life magazine, he captured many notable snapshots of film stars in the 1940s and 1950s. During World War II, his combat camera work during the Battle of Saipan was praised. He won a George Polk Award in 1953 for a photograph of a diver 100 feet under water, and he taught photography at the Academy of Art University. He also wrote a column in U.S. Camera for fifteen years. He was the son of sculptor Ralph Stackpole.
Peter Stackpole was born at St. Francis Memorial Hospital in San Francisco in 1913 to sculptor Ralph Stackpole and painter/designer Adele Barnes who had married in 1912. In 1922, the Stackpoles moved to Paris where the marriage fell apart from the father's adultery. Ralph Stackpole left Paris with artist's model Francine "Ginette" Mazen, returning to San Francisco, the two eventually marrying in Mexico. Peter and his mother stayed in Paris while Stackpole continued his schoolwork at École alsacienne and a primary school in the 14th arrondissement of Paris through the first half of 1924. After she agreed to a divorce, Stackpole's mother moved herself and her son to Oakland, California.
Stackpole attended Oakland Technical High School and developed an interest in photography. His first camera was a compact Agfa Memo hobbyist model, but his second was the well-made Leica Model A that he used more seriously. He apprenticed to the photographer of Oakland's Post-Enquirer newspaper in 1931. His small format 35mm Leica allowed him to capture more action as it unfolded than the other newspaper photographers who preferred larger film cameras mounted on tripods for their higher quality. His 1933 ringside snapshot of prizefighter Max Baer was dismissed by the newspaper editors because it was unposed, taken only with available light.
As the only child of well-connected artists, Stackpole met famous people such as American photographers Dorothea Lange and Edward Weston, and Mexican painters Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera; Rivera painted an image of teen-aged Stackpole playing with a model airplane into his mural titled Allegory of California (1931). Stackpole was driven by his father to visit with Weston in Carmel-by-the-Sea, where Stackpole listened to Weston speak of the intention and composition behind the photograph which makes it art. In 1932, Stackpole was exposed to more fine art photography at the De Young Museum which was exhibiting works by Weston, Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, Willard Van Dyke and other photographers associated with Group f/64 in San Francisco. This experience gave Stackpole more motivation to put intention and composition into his photography.
Stackpole's candid photo of ex-president Herbert Hoover dozing off in 1934 during a commencement speech delivered by Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins was refused by publisher William F. Knowland of the Oakland Tribune, but it was purchased by Time magazine, and it led to freelance work.
At the age of 20 in 1933, Stackpole began documenting the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge with his hand-held Leica. He captured images of iron workers in action and at rest, and took stunning vistas from the tops of the bridge towers. In 1934, his bridge photography was recognized by Willard Van Dyke, who granted Stackpole honorary membership in Group f/64, despite Stackpole's more dynamic hand-held photojournalist style. Twenty-five of Stackpole's bridge photos were exhibited in 1935 at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, cementing Stackpole's reputation. At the suggestion of Imogen Cunningham, Stackpole submitted his photos to Vanity Fair magazine which published two pages of them in July 1935. The magazine U.S. Camera also published his bridge construction shots, and Ansel Adams included them in the 1940 multi-artist collective exhibition he curated called A Pageant of Photography, shown to millions of visitors at the Golden Gate International Exposition in the middle of the San Francisco Bay.
In a return to high steel work in April 1951, Life magazine published Stackpole's photos of the construction of Delaware Memorial Bridge, in a photo essay titled "High Steel". Stackpole released a book of his bridge photos in 1984 through Pomegranate Artbooks, titled The Bridge Builders: Photographs and Documents of the Raising of the San Francisco Bay Bridge, 1934–1936, with text written by Anita Mozley of Stanford University Museum of Art.