Van Deren Coke 1921 (2 results)

Condition: Good. Three typed letters (4pp.) signed by Van Deren Coke, each addressed to Dody Weston Thompson. Letters: 27.7x21.6 cm (11x8½"). Includes original mailing envelopes, some photocopied newspaper articles and 3 small format color photographs. 5 franked envelopes with other docs.Each letter is signed by Van Deren Coke. Correspondence from curator and Director of Photography at SF MoMA Van Deren Coke to Dody Weston Thompson on various issues related to museum collections and a charity auction. . The letter from 1997 has a copy of the New York times review of his show at the Howard Greenberg Gallery with 3 color photos, presumably for the show. Dody Weston Thompson:Born: 1923, New Orleans, LA, Died: 2012, Los Angeles, CA, .Photographer and photo historian Dody Weston Thompson studied at Tulane University in New Orleans (1940) and Black Mountain College in North Carolina (1941-1943). In 1947, Thompson met Edward Weston, who offered her training in photography in exchange for work as his assistant. Later that same year, Thompson opened her own portrait studio. In 1949, she met Ansel Adams who, like Weston, taught Thompson photography while she worked as his assistant. By 1950, Thompson's photographic work was exhibited and collected by numerous institutions, including the Santa Barbara Museum of Art and the Institute of Design in Chicago. In 1952, Thompson earned the Alfred M. Bender Award from the San Francisco Museum of Art.In addition to her career in photography, Thompson was a prolific author and lecturer on the history and practice of the medium. Notably, in 1952 she co-founded the photography journal Aperture, to which she frequently contributed as a writer. Throughout her lifetime, she actively worked to preserve the legacy of Edward Weston and the West Coast photographic movement of the 1950s. From 1952 until 1957, Thompson was married to Edward's son, Brett Weston.

Condition: Good. Typed one-page letter on SF MOMA stationery, signed by Van Deren Coke and addressed to Do[d]y Weston Thompson. 27.9x21.7 cm (11x8½"). Includes 9x10.8 cm (3½x4¼") polaroid photograph by Van Deren Coke.Signed by Van Deren Coke. Correspondence from curator (and later Director) of Photography at SF MOMA Van Deren Coke to Dody Weston Thompson. Coke thanks Dody for including his work in her article Notes on the Photography of Death. He comments on the enclosed photograph, "Attached is a poor SX-70 shot of one of my latest. I am doing little photography at present while getting my bearings here at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. I had dinner with Don Ross and Brett last week and I am writing the introduction to one of Don's portfolios.