Gretchen Garner

“Garner Gretchen Garner, age 77, passed away at her residence in Columbus on February 15, 2017, surrounded by the books and art that reflect her career as an educator, artist, and author.”

I knew Ms. Garner mostly by reputation. Talking with her at conferences and such. Then much more when I bought much of her library. Over 200 books; many with note papers and book-markers in them. I didn’t know that she was dying.

I’ve bought several libraries in my years. It always seems a mixture of meanings. Someone is finishing a part of their life — changing. It should be good. Exchange of the unused into the useable. Not even her website remains.

.So, take a look for her work. Read what you can. Make more of your own work. Be certain to spread it about you.

The living doesn’t last long — 50 or so years is a good run. She was among those that helped lift photography from one stage to another.

Some of her publications:

AN ART HISTORY OF EPHEMERA:
GRETCHEN GARNER’S CATALOG

Photographs by Gretchen Garner
Tulip Press, Chicago, 1982
[book is out-of-print]
 
RECLAIMING PARADISE:
AMERICAN WOMEN PHOTOGRAPH THE LAND

Gretchen Garner, Guest Curator
Tweed Museum of Art
University of Minnesota, Duluth, 1987
[catalog now out-of-pri
SIX IDEAS IN PHOTOGRAPHY:
A CELEBRATION OF PHOTOGRAPHY’S SESQUICENTENNIAL

Gretchen Garner, Guest Curator
Grand Rapids (MI) Art Museum, 1989
[catalog now out-of-print]
DISAPPEARING WITNESS:
CHANGE IN 20TH CENTURY AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHY

Gretchen Garner
Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003
[in print, available through booksellers, $34.95 ]
 

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

1976 – “The Photographic Gesture,” New Art Examiner, October
1977 – “Stanley Milgram: A Psychologist Looks at Photography,” Camera 35, September (also New Art Examiner, February)
1979 – “Monumental Lincoln Park,” Chicago, March
1980 – Vanitas, portfolio of ten photographs
1981 – “The Pencil of Nature, Part II,” Exposure 19:4
1982 – “Interview with Larry Viskochil, Who Keeps Chicago’s Family Album,” Exposure 20:1
1987 – “Are Portraits Possible?” Grand Valley Review 3:1
1988 – “New Metaphorics: Spirit and Symbol in Contemporary Landscape Photography,” Center Quarterly, Center for Photography, Woodstock, NY, Fall
1996 – “A Disappearing Witness: Change in the Practice of Photography,” The Photo Review, Fall/Winter