Background
Wessel was born on July 28, 1942 in Teaneck, New Jersey, United States.
University Park, Pennsylvania, United States
Wessel earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Pennsylvania State University in 1966.
State University of New York, Buffalo, New York, United States
Wessel received a Master of Fine Arts degree from the State University of New York in 1972.
Wessel with his dog Roxy.
(This book contains Wessel's edit of these pictures and is...)
This book contains Wessel's edit of these pictures and is a record of American leisure at this time -of surf, sand and inexhaustible pleasure-seekers.
https://www.amazon.com/Henry-Wessel-Waikiki/dp/386930300X/?tag=2022091-20
2011
(This book presents three independent bodies of work by He...)
This book presents three independent bodies of work by Henry Wessel, each being a precise sequence arranged to give the viewer the experience of what it felt like to pass through the territory described.
https://www.amazon.com/Henry-Wessel-Traffic-Sunset-Continental/dp/3958292755/?tag=2022091-20
2017
(This book presents three independent bodies of work by He...)
This book presents three independent bodies of work by Henry Wessel from the past five decades. Each series is a precise sequence recreating the experience of passing through the territory described.
https://www.amazon.com/Henry-Wessel-Walkabout-Botanical-Census/dp/3958295703/?tag=2022091-20
2019
Wessel was born on July 28, 1942 in Teaneck, New Jersey, United States.
Wessel earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Pennsylvania State University in 1966. Six years later he received a Master of Fine Arts degree from the State University of New York.
Wessel moved to San Francisco from New York during the 1970s and began travelling around the state in search of motifs to photograph. There, in both black-and-white and color film, he photographed the vernacular architecture and social landscape of his new surroundings, in prints marked by long shadows and rich tonal variations.
His first solo exhibition was held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1972. In addition, in 1975, Henry was included in the seminal exhibition "New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape", after which he first gained recognition. Wessel taught at San Francisco Art Institute from 1973 to 2014, where he was a professor emeritus of art. During his artistic career, he exhibited around the world in internationally leading museums, including International Museum of Photography in Osaka, Museum of Modern Art, Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, Tate Modern in London and many others.
(This book presents three independent bodies of work by He...)
2017(This book contains Wessel's edit of these pictures and is...)
2011(Hitchhike is a westward journey from the grassy farmlands...)
2019(This book presents three independent bodies of work by He...)
2019(In 2012 Henry Wessel assembled Incidents, a book of 27 pr...)
2013Pasadena, California
1974Traffic
2015Untitled
1970California
1969Auto motel
Buena Vista, Colorado
1973Pennsylvania
1968Nevada
1975Utah
1974Walapai, Arizona
1971Night Walk #28
1995Richmond Bridge
1985Albuquerque, New Mexico
1968San Francisco, California
1973Incidents 002
2012Incidents 001
2012Incidents 020
2012Incidents 008
2012New Mexico
1969Tucson, Arizona
1976Oakland, California
1970El Cerrito, California
1972Hollywood, California
1972Waikiki
1978Golden Gate Park
1982
Quotations:
"In a still photograph you basically have two variables, where you stand and when you press the shutter. That’s all you have."
"If you let some time go by before considering work that you have done, you move toward a more objective position in judging it. The pleasure of the subjective, physical experience in the world is a more distant memory and less influential."
"The process of photographing is a pleasure: eyes open, receptive, sensing, and at some point, connecting. It's thrilling to be outside your mind, your eyes far ahead of your thoughts."
Wessel, throughout his career, used only one camera and one type of film - a Leica 35 mm camera with a 28 mm wide-angle lens and Kodak Tri-X film.
Quotes from others about the person
Sandra S. Phillips: "Wessel's remarkable work, witty, evocative and inventive, is distinctive and at the same time a component part of the great development of photography which flourished in the 1970s."