Max Yavno
American, 1911 - 1985
1911 . . . Born April 26 in New York City
1927 . . . June, graduates from Evander Childs High School in the Bronx, New York; begins working for the New York Stock Exchange as a page boy; begins studies at the City College of New York during evening sessions
1930 . . . Marries Alyse Abrams and purchases his first camera
1932 . . . Receives Bachelor of Social Science degree from the City College of New York
1932-33 . . . Attends the Graduate School of Business Administration at Columbia University
1933-34 . . . Enrolls in the graduate program in Political Science at Columbia University
1934 . . . Ends marriage to Alyse
1935 . . . Employed as a social worker at the New York City Home Relief Bureau
1936-42 . . . Employed by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) to process artists' applications and as a photographer
1938-39 . . . President of the Photo League
1939-42 . . . Shares an apartment with Aaron Siskind in New York
1942-45 . . . Serves in the United States Army Air Force during World War II as a photography instructor
1945 . . . Moves to Los Angeles; begins working as a freelance photographer for various magazines, including Vogue and Harper's Bazaar
1946 . . . Solo exhibition at the American Contemporary Gallery in Los Angeles
1947 . . . Briefly lives in San Francisco; Siskind visits him
1948 . . . Publishes The San Francisco Book (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.) with Herb Caen; solo exhibition at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco
1949 . . . Siskind visits him in Los Angeles
1950 . . . Publication of The Los Angeles Book (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.) with Lee Shippey
1952 . . . Edward Steichen acquires nineteen Yavno prints for The Museum of Modern Art, New York
1953 . . . Awarded John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, after being recommended by Edward Weston and Steichen
1954 and 55 . . . Awarded Art Directors Club Award, New York
1954-75 . . . Owns and operates a commercial photography studio in Los Angeles
1962 . . . Publication of The Story of Wine in California (Berkeley: University of California Press) with text by M.F.K. Fisher
1967 . . . Travels to Europe
1968 . . . Publication of Natzler Ceramics (Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art)
1972-73 . . . Studies cinematography, University of California at Los Angeles, Graduate Division of Theater Arts
1975 . . . Travels to Death Valley, California; begins to make personal, artistic photographs
1976 . . . Solo exhibition at the G. Ray Hawkins Gallery in Los Angeles
1977 . . . Publication of Portfolio One: Image as Poem (Los Angeles) with text by Ben Maddow; and Silver See (Los Angeles) a group portfolio with text by Victor Landweber; solo exhibition at Halsted Gallery in Birmingham, Michigan
1978 . . . Solo exhibition at G. Ray Hawkins Gallery in Los Angeles; and at the Gallery for Photographic Arts in New Orleans, Louisiana
1979 . . . Travels to Israel and Egypt funded by a National Endowment for the Arts grant; solo exhibition at the Gallery for Photographic Arts in North Olmstead, Ohio; and at Marcuse Pfeifer Gallery in New York
1980 . . . Solo exhibition at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco; and at the Equivalents Gallery in Seattle, Washington and G. Ray Hawkins Gallery in Los Angeles
1981 . . . October to December, travels to Mexico; Publication of The Photography of Max Yavno (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press) with text by Ben Maddow; retrospective exhibition at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery; exhibition at the Galería Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Cuanhtémoc, Mexico
1982 . . . Travels to Morocco
1985 . . . Dies March 4 in Los Angeles
1992 . . . Archive acquired by the Center for Creative Photography, The University of Arizona
[Information from The Photography of Max Yavno, with text by Ben Maddow (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981).]
American. Born: New York City, 26 April 1911. Education: Evander Childs High School, Bronx, New York, until 1927; studied (evenings), City College of New York, 1927-32; studied business administration and political science, Columbia University, New York, 1932-34; studied cinematography, University of California at Los Angeles, 1972-73. Military Service: Served in the U.S. Army Air Force, 1942-45. Family: Married Alyse Abrams in 1930 (divorced, 1934). Career: Worked as a page boy, New York Stock Exchange, 1927-32; social worker, New York City Relief Bureau, 1935; employed by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), New York, 1936-42. Freelance landscape, documentary and commercial photographer, working for Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, etc., in San Francisco, 1945 until his death in 1985; established commercial photography studio, San Francisco, 1954-75. President, Photo League, New York, 1938-39. Recipient: Guggenheim Fellowship, New York, 1953; Art Directors Club Award, New York, 1954, 1955. Died: (in San Francisco) 4 April 1985.
Max Yavno's photography spans a period of over 40 years. He began working with the Photo League in New York during the late 1930s. The sense of cultural and social detail he acquired there remained with him, and formed the foundation of his oeuvre. The same themes: storefronts, gas stations, and the nuances of crowded street life continued to occupy him throughout his career. Yavno was a choreographer of the urban scene, a choreographer of endless patience who would wait steadfastly for just the right posture or fall of light. He was also a master craftsman of the black and white print.
Yavno moved from New York to San Francisco after World War II, and in 1948 he produced a book of photographs of that city for Houghton-Mifflin. The wider spaces of San Francisco encouraged a more expansive documentary vision. Yavno's view camera carved out huge chunks of the coastal skyline. In 1950 he worked with Lee Shippey on a second book, about Los Angeles. This book included such classic images as the klieglit ``Premiere at Carthay Circle,'' and the huge, Popart ``Leg.'' The exuberant southern California architecture encouraged Yavno's eye for vernacular irony.
In 1952 Yavno sold several prints to Edward Steichen at the Museum of Modern Art. And in '53 he was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship, having been recommended by Steichen and Edward Weston. Despite this much deserved recognition the early 1950s were not an encouraging time to be a ``fine-art'' photographer. Yavno was forced to turn to commercial photography. He worked for over 20 years, doing mostly advertising and product shots. He brought the same sense of craftsmanship and attention to detail which characterized his landscape work to his commercial still-lifes. His work appeared in Vogue and Harpers, and in 1954 and '55 he won Gold Medals from the New York Art Directors Club.
Then, in 1975 Yavno experienced an epiphany of sorts during a trip to Death Valley. He came upon a scene which re-awakened his desire to photograph the landscape, as he recalls, ``It was almost a mystical thing. I'm a pretty down to earth guy and I was amazed at the feeling that came over me.'' Yavno again plunged into photography as an art and met with almost immediate success, having a one-man show at the G. Ray Hawkins Gallery in Los Angeles in 1976. From this point on he photographed almost continuously. Although he did much of his work in Los Angeles he also took trips back to New York, and in 1979 he was able to photograph in both Egypt and Israel on an NEA grant.
In the midst of the ``photo-boom'' Yavno found a far more receptive audience for his work. In December of 1980 the Fine Arts Museum in San Francisco gave him a one-man show and in 1981 the University of California Press published a lavishly reproduced monography of his work. Yavno died in 1985, leaving a valuable body of photography. His work represents a direct link between the classical Photo League tradition of sociological portrayal and the more private and introspective school of the fine-art urban landscape.
Retrieved from "Max Yavno." Contemporary Photographers. Gale, 1996. Gale Biography In Context. Web. 21 Feb. 2012.
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%7CK1653000716&mode=view&userGroupName=tall85761&jsid=e09f18ddd1615c75f6a49890b75f1829 (Accessed Feb. 21, 2012)
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