Walfred Moisio - Photogram
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Contact: Alex Novak and Marthe Smith
Email: info@vintageworks.net
Phone: +1-215-822-5662
Company: Contemporary Works / Vintage Works, Ltd.
258 Inverness Circle
Chalfont, PA 18914 USA
URL: http://www.vintageworks.net
Ref.#: 10093Price: $1,500
Medium: Silver printMount: unmountedPhoto Date: 1930-40sPrint Date: 1930-40sDimensions: 9-1/2 x 7-11/16 in. (241 x 195 mm)Photo Country: United States (USA)Photographer Country: United States (USA)
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DESCRIPTION:With photographer's stamp on verso. Born in 1910 in Fitchburg, MA to Finnish immigrants, Walfred Moisio grew up in Ashby, MA on his family's apple orchard. In the midst of the Great Depression, he put himself through Columbia University (1928-1933), where he earned a BA in Fine Arts and played violin in the Columbia University Orchestra. He taught himself photography during these student years. After graduating in 1933, Moisio moved to 40 Horatio Street in New York City to join the Emergency Relief Bureau, Home Relief Division. Later in 1935 he moved to 373 Bleecker Street and taught photography for the WPA Federal Arts Project. In 1940 he and his students exhibited work at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. Beginning in 1942 Moisio also began to freelance, photographing for the New Yorker, Esquire, Time, Look, Harpers' Bazaar, Vogue and the New York Times. While contemporaries such as Berenice Abbott, whose studio was in the same building as Moisio's at one point and who also worked for the WPA, and Walker Evans may have influenced his work, he had his own take on this tumultuous era, capturing a wholly original point of view of New York and its street life. Many of his images show views from high vantage points and extreme angles, much like Russian constructivist photography of the same period. In 1943 Moisio moved his studio to 351 Avenue of the Americas. He continued to work as a freelance photographer on commercial and journalistic assignments until 1961. During this period, Moisio photographed many of the top contemporary artists, sculptors, photographers, actors, composers and poets, including Hans Hoffman, Louis Ribak, Walter Quirt and Leopold Stokowski. In 1960 Edward Steichen solicited him to enter "America's Many Faces", an invitational contest put on by the New York Museum of Modern Art. In 1961, Moisio left New York and returned to his childhood home of Ashby, MA where he continued to photograph and to teach English in the town's school system. Moisio passed away in 2002 at the age of 92. Shipping and insurance costs will be added to the price and must be paid for by the buyer. Pennsylvania and New York buyers must pay appropriate sales tax. International clients are responsible for their VAT and other custom's oriented charges.
