Margaretta Mitchell

Margaretta Mitchell (née Kuhlthau, born May 27, 1935) is an American photographer and writer who lives in Berkeley, CA. As a photographer, she is known for her portraits and still lifes. She has authored art criticism, biographies of women artists, and photographic histories.

Early life

Mitchell was born May 27, 1935 in Brooklyn, NY, the second child of Conrad W. and Margaretta Kuhlthau.[1] After graduating magna cum laude in 1957 from Smith College, Mitchell (then Kuhlthau) served until 1959 as a research assistant to Edwin Land, who was instrumental in the invention of the Polaroid instant camera.[2][3]

Work

Mitchell’s photographs belong to the Pictorialist tradition, addressing formal concerns of line and shadow primarily in black and white. She occasionally incorporates graphic media, particularly in images of flowers.[3] Her work can be found in the collections of the Amon Carter Museum of American Art[4], the International Center of Photography[5], the Akron Art Museum[6], and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art[7], among others.

In perhaps her best-known work, Mitchell worked with the International Center of Photography in New York in the late 1970s to mount a traveling exhibition and accompanying book on women photographers. Recollections: Ten Women of Photography included works by Berenice Abbott, Ruth Bernhard, Carlotta Corpron, Louise Dahl-Wolfe, Nell Dorr, Toni Frissell, Laura Gilpin, Lotte Jacobi, Consuelo Kanaga, and Barbara Morgan, bringing attention to the previously overlooked contributions of women to photography.[8]

Other publications include To a Cabin with Dorothea Lange (1973),[9][10] Dance for Life (1985), Flowers (1991), a biography of photographer Ruth Bernhard (2000), and The Face of Poetry (2005).[2]

Personal life

She and Frederick Mitchell (b. 1932 or 1933 - d.1996) married on May 23, 1959 in New Brunswick, NJ.[11] The couple raised three daughters.[12]

References
  1. "New York Birth Records and 1940 US Census". May 24, 2018.
  2. Who's Who in American Art 2012. 2012.
  3. Rosenblum, Naomi (2010). A History of Women Photographers. New York: Abbeville Press.
  4. "Amon Carter Collection Catalogue".
  5. "ICP Collection".
  6. "Akron Museum Collection".
  7. "Margaretta Mitchell, Sim Warkov". New York Times. October 18, 2018.
  8. "Photography Exhibition To Center on 10 Women". New York Times. September 3, 1979.
  9. C.E.O. (28 October 1973). "The Sea, A Cabin, A Place To Be Free". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. St. Louis, Missouri. p. 4C. Retrieved 6 August 2019.
  10. Lang, Tony (15 November 1973). "To a cabin". The Cincinnati Inquirer. Cincinnati, Ohio. p. 51. Retrieved 6 August 2019.
  11. "Miss Kuhlthau Is Bride Of Frederick Mitchell". New York Times. May 24, 1959.
  12. "Obituaries". Erie Times-News (PA). February 8, 1996.
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