John Szarkowski’s Aesthetic Of Noticing

“It’s worth remembering how much Wisconsin there was in the voice of John Szarkowski, who died on Saturday at age 81. His reputation would almost make you doubt what you were hearing. He was, after all, the curator of photography at the Museum of Modern Art for 29 years, beginning in 1962. … I’m struck now by the essential modesty of that other place — the common-sensical view Szarkowski took of his curatorial work and his work as a photographer.”