Stephen H. Willard (1904-1965) Palm Springs, CA
Stephen Hallet Willard is an artist who produces many paintings and photographs of Western landscapes, especially the desert landscape. Willard last published many of the same images as a linen postcard, printed by Curt Teich. He photographed the deserts and mountains of the West for 58 years. His mastery of black and white photographs, combined with his passion for landscapes, was translated into a working body documenting remote areas of some Western Americans he had seen or visited.
Born in Illinois, Willard grew up in Corona, California. By the time Willard graduated from Corona High School in 1912, he had developed the skills required for a career in photography. Over the next few years, he made several important photographic journeys through the wilderness area of ​​the Sierra Nevada. In 1921, Willard married Beatrice Armstrong, and after a year traveling and photographing deserts at the Southwest, they settled permanently in Palm Springs and opened a studio and gallery. Over the next twenty-five years he traveled throughout the Colorado and Mojave desert and developed a passion for photographing the desert.
To avoid the heat of summer, he and his wife set up a second gallery in Mammoth Lakes and seasonally worked in both locations for snowmobiling in the summer and deserts in the winter. Willard regards photography as both art and himself as an artist. His choice of subject matter, composition, and the use of sharp contrast were combined to make his photograph not only a valuable artistic masterpiece but also a historical record of desert and mountain environments.
In 1999, Dr. Beatrice Willard donated her father's life to the museum (later called Desert Desert Palm Springs Museum). This generous gift of more than 16,000 items including original glass and negative film; vintage photos; slides of hand-colored lanterns; photo-painting; postcard; stereograph; cameras, lenses and other photographic equipment; and personal documents and memorabilia including maps, travel cases, correspondence, and publications. Concentrated efforts are being made to preserve precious materials in Photographic Collection Stephen H. Willard & amp; Archive for the purpose of ensuring continued enjoyment and utilization of these materials for the future.
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Source of the article : Wikipedia
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