JACK DELANO

(1914 - 1997 ) b. Kiev, Russia

Jack Delano, born Jacob Ovcharov, moved from his native Russian to New York in 1923, at the age of 9. He went on to study illustration at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts until 1932, when he purchased a camera and discovered his passion for documentary photography. Delano began photographing coal-mining conditions in Pennsylvania and it was these photographs that made Roy Stryker offer him a position at the Farm Security Administration Photography program. It was within the FSA that Delano chased his photographic truth, the truth and dignity of the workingman through compassion. His works cover migrant workers both within industry and agriculture, everyday people and activities: humanity.

From 1946-47, Delano worked as a photographer for the Government of Puerto Rico after serving in the U.S. military from 1943-46. The last 50 years of his career he worked as a freelance photographer, illustrator, filmmaker, and music composer. He received an honorary art Doctorate at the University of the Sacred Heart in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1987. His photographs exhibited internationally his whole artistic career in establishments as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Documenta 6 in Germany, Amerikafotografie in Switzerland, and the Dallas Museum of Art in Texas.

Among the many publications of his work, there have been four books published of Delano's photographs. The Smithsonian Press published two of these books, including his autobiography, Photographic Memories. The rich collection of Delano's photographs can be found among many private and public collections. The prestigious public collections are internationally enjoyed by museums as The Museum of Modern Art in New York, Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, International Center of Photography, and in the achieves of the Library of Congress.

CAREER

1947 – 1997 Independent Photographer, Illustrator, Filmmaker and Music Composer

1946 –1947 Documentary Photographer for Government of Puerto Rico

1943 – 1946 Military Service

1940 – 1943 Photographer, Farm Security Administration, Washington D.C. and Office of War Information

1939 – 1940 Photographer, WPA Art Project, Philadelphia, PA

EDUCATION

1932 – 1937 Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA

1987 Honorary Doctorate in Arts, University of the Sacred Heart, San Juan, Puerto Rico

1960 Honorary Doctorate, Interamerican University, Puerto Rico

AWARDS

1945 Guggenheim Fellowship in Photography

1979 NEAH Fellowship: Contrasts: 40 Years of Change and Continuity in Puerto Rico.

1961 UNESCO Traveling Fellow

SELECT EXHIBITIONS

1997 – 2000 The Art of Jack Delano, Smithsonian Museum traveling exhibition

1995 – Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX Solo exhibition

Photographs Do Not Bend Gallery, Dallas, TX Solo exhibiton

1994 – FOTOFEST, Houston, TX

1992 – 5th Biennale, Vigo, Spain

1985 - Madres E. Hijos, Casa Aboy, San Juan, Puerto Rico

1983 – 1987 Contrasts, traveling exhibiton.

1979 – AMERIKAFOTOGRAFIE – Kunsthaus, Zurich, Switzerland

Images de L’Amerique en Crise, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France

Our Humility, Our Pride – Springfield Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, Mass

1978 – Sonnabend Gallery, New York, NY Solo exhibition

Art Students League, San Juan, Puerto Rico Solo exhibition

1977 – DOCUMENTA 6, Kassel, West Germany

FSA Photographs, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA

WPA Photographs, The Grey Art Gallery, NY University, New York, NY

1976 – FSA Photographers, Witkin Gallery, New York, NY

1973 – FSA Photographs – Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

1962 – The Bitter Years, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY

1955 – The Family of Man, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY

1939 – Bootleg Coal Mining, Railroad Station Gallery, Pennsylvania, PA

BOOKS

1997 - Photographic Memories, autobiography published by Smithsonian Press.

1994 – In Search of Maestro Rafael Cordero, University of Puerto Rico Press

1992 – From San Juan to Ponce on the Train, University of Puerto Rico Press.

1990 – Puerto Rico Mio, Smithsonian Institution Press.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

1986 – Economic History of Puerto Rico, James L. Dietz, Princeton Press

1985 – American Photographers of the Depression, Pantheon Books

1983 - Puerto Rico: A Political and Cultural History, Arturo Morales Carrion, W. W, Norton Press

1977 – The Iron Horse Goes to War, James Valle, Howell-North Books.

1976 – A Vision Shared, Hank O’Neal, St. Martin’s Press

Masters of Photography, Gene Thornton; Holt, Ronehart.

1973 – In This Proud Land, Roy E. Stryker and Nancy Wood, The New York Graphic Society

1972 – Portrait of a Decade, F. Jack Hurley, Louisiana State University

1956 – The People of Puerto Rico, J. Steward et al, University of Illinois

1943 – Tenants of the Almighty, Arthur Raper, MacMillan Press

1941 – 12 Million Black Voices, Richard Wright and Edwin Rosskam, Viking Press

1941 – 1944 – U.S. Camera Annual, Duell, Sloan and Pierce