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George Tice
American, born 1938
Any consideration of George A. Tice's photographs must include the word ``unusual''--with the caution not to use the word too often. His formal education ended abruptly in vocational high school which had fostered his interest in photography, begun at the age of 14 in a local camera club. A short time as darkroom assistant for a commercial photographer was followed by enlistment at 17 years of age in the United States Navy as Photographer's Mate. When Tice returned home to New Jersey, he joined the Vailsburg Camera Club in Newark and became active in competitions and judgings that helped develop his aesthetic attitudes. For several years following, he made his livelihood as a photographer of infants in New Jersey and California. However, during the time Tice was in the Navy he had photographed an explosion aboard the U.S.S. Wasp; in 1959 this photograph came to the attention of Edward Steichen, then director of the photography department at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, who acquired a print for the museum's collection. This event marked the first national recognition for Tice's work and the beginning of his relationship with Steichen, for whom he became protégé and printmaker. Tice's determination for personal growth is highlighted in his self-assignment to perform the major experiments and discoveries in the history of photography. His many and diverse experiences, beginning early in life, have served to broaden his vision, provide a continuum for building technical competencies and shape professional opportunities. The late Lee Witkin, a long time friend of Tice, referred to him as having taught himself everything, gaining a firm place in his art which contains spare romanticism in seeking perfection and beauty.
Tice's essential interest in places is illustrated in his study of Paterson, New Jersey, which was published in a book with the same name. Using an 8 x 10 inch format camera, he recorded parts of this city in his straight-forward manner, providing icons of the urban condition of many cities. Without nostalgia for Paterson's more fortunate historic past, he did not overlook its spectacular falls (the Passaic River), trees and bluffs. Almost as a footnote, he photographed, with a hand-held 35mm camera, local people on downtown streets. This book is another of Tice's self-assignments and illustrates his complete dedication to a project, sensitiveness to a subject and thoroughness of effort; a commercial assignment of this type might have been completed in one week or so. His vision grew as he developed insights about the city as it was revisited and photographed over several years.
A review of Tice's work to date reveals that most subjects have been places, rather than people. However, his ``places'' emit emotional content that includes feelings of human presence--that someone may have just left or is about to appear. There is also a sense of intrigue suggested by the tonal ranges (often low key) and the placement of light in the negative and/or induced in the darkroom. Color is not essential in Tice's photographs, partly because of the choice of subject matter--but more important is the aura which takes its place. He does not use color materials because of their general impermanence; he believes that black-and-white photography is immortality.
Characteristic of artists and typical of Tice's work is that, with time, it becomes more difficult to generalize about him. This condition results from new interests which produce change and inconsistencies in the choice of subject matter and how it is interpreted. His photographs in Fields of Peace are revealing and straight reporting of both the Pennsylvania German people and their farmlands. Another departure from ``places'' is Tice's photo-essay Artie Van Blarcum, which has the subtitle, ``An Extended Portrait.'' And that it is: a selection of photographs about one person by the photographer, who is again on self-assignment, over a long period of time. Here the emphasis is upon one subject: a person. That person was the focus of Tice's attention, and, as with Paterson, time let him reflect and review what he had done and needed to do in presenting his subject while still in the process of doing it. With Tice's informal photographs of a factory worker, Artie, and written comments, intimacy and identification merge to reveal." that there's a little bit of Artie in all of us.''
Tice's book Lincoln features places and things which bear the name of the (U.S.) Civil War president Abraham Lincoln. Objects photographed include local bars, parks, motels, statues and, of course, outdoor signs.
His newest project, over three years in the making, has the working title Hometowns, An American Pilgrimage. Featured are three small towns which he senses have qualities that contribute to natives upon becoming adults. Selected are Dixon, Illinois, Fairmount, Indiana, and Hannibal, Missouri--boyhood locales of Ronald Reagan, James Dean and Mark Twain, respectively. In personal and diverse ways these men incurred Tice's pictorial interests.
Much of Tice's work has historical themes. He seems to prefer subjects with significant pasts; when selecting subjects, he not only considers their romantic/aesthetic appeal, but also the opportunity to display his masterly technical skills.
George A. Tice's mastery of photographic techniques can be accounted for by his interest and diligence in the study of equipment, materials and processes plus the practice of what he has learned. The unusual range of subjects he selects for painstaking portrayal naturally follows his inclination, in his fifties, not to develop a personal style: an artist can have many visions.
Retrieved from Gale Biography, http://ic.galegroup.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/ic/bic1/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow?displayGroupName=Reference&disableHighlighting=false&prodId=BIC1&action=e&windowstate=normal&catId=&documentId=GALE%7CK1653000657&mode=view&userGroupName=tall85761&jsid=d4e94a9e5592da6ed480cb01e8e49c60 (Accessed Feb. 16, 2012)
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