Quote: "I only know how to approach a place by walking. For what does a street photographer do but walk and watch and wait and talk, and then watch and wait some more, trying to remain confident that the unexpected, the unknown, or the secret heart of the known awaits just around the corner."
Alex Webb joined Magnum Photos in 1976 and became a full Member in 1979.

American, b. 1952

Alex Webb became interested in photography during his high school years and attended the Apeiron Workshops in Millerton, New York, in 1972. He majored in history and literature at Harvard University, at the same time studying photography at the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts. In 1974 he began working as a professional photojournalist and he joined Magnum Photos as an associate member in 1976.

During the mid-1970s Webb photographed in the American south, documenting small-town life in black and white. He also began working in the Caribbean and Mexico. In 1978 he started to photograph in color, as he has continued to do. He has published seven photography books, including Hot Light/Half-Made Worlds: Photographs from the Tropics, Under A Grudging Sun, Crossings, the limited edition artist book Dislocations and Istanbul: City of a Hundred Names.

Webb received a New York Foundation of the Arts Grant in 1986, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in 1990, a Hasselblad Foundation Grant in 1998 and a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2007. He won the Leopold Godowsky Color Photography Award in 1988, the Leica Medal of Excellence in 2000 and the David Octavius Hill Award in 2002. His photographs have been the subject of articles in Art in America and Modern Photography. He has exhibited widely in the United States and Europe, in museums including the Walker Art Center, the Museum of Photographic Arts, the International Center of Photography, the High Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Education

1974 Bachelor of Arts, History and Literature, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
1972 Apeiron Photography Workshops with Charles Harbutt, Millerton, New York, USA

Awards

2002 David Octavius Hill Medaille
2000 Leica Medal of Excellence
1998 Hasselblad Foundation
1990 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship
1990 W. Eugene Smith Foundation Grant
1988 Leopold Godowsky, Jr. Color Photography Award
1986 New York State Council on the Arts Grant
1980 Overseas Press Club Award

Solo Exhibitions

2006 Nordic Light, Kristiansund, Norway, Crossings
2006 Abertstwyth Arts Centre, Aberstwyth, Wales. Crossings
2006 Belfast Exposed, Belfast, Ireland. Crossings
2005 Southeast Museum of Photography, Daytona Beach, Fl. Crossings
2005 Etherton Gallery, Tucson, Az. Crosscurrents of Inquiry. Crossings.
2005 Yours Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
2005 Open Society Institute, New York. Moving Walls. Esperando
2005 Internationale Fototage, Mannheim, Germany. Crossings
2004 Sala de Exposiciones de Canal de Isabel II, Madrid, Spain. Crossings
2004 Ricco/Maresca Gallery. New York, NY. Esperando
2004 Stephen D. Paine Gallery. Massachusetts College of Art. Boston, Ma. Crossings
2003 Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, San Diego, Ca. Crossings: Photographs
from the U.S.-Mexico Border
2003 University of California, Sacramento. Haiti
2002 Joseph Bellows Gallery, La Jolla, Ca.
2002 German Academy of Photography, Leinfelden, Germany. The Light of the Street.
2000 Leica Gallery, NY. Panama
2000 Open Society, NYC, NY. Haiti
1999 Internationale Fototage Herten. Under a Grudging Sun and Beyond
1999 Sky Harbor Gallery, Phoenix, Az. Waterways of the Amazon and Beyond
1999 Etherton Gallery, Tucson, Az
1998 Leica Gallery, NY. Amazon
1998 Cite du Livre, Aix en Provence, Fr. Caraibes.
1998 Zentrum fur Photografie, Berlin, Ger.
1997 FotoMassan, Gothenburg, Sweden. US-Mexico Border
1997 Neurologisches Therapiecentrum, Cologne, Germany. Haiti Libere
1997 Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Cambridge, Ma. Dislocations
1996 High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Ga. Picturing the South: Artist Project
1996 Southeast Museum of Photography, Daytona Beach, Fla. Here and There:
Photographs from Florida and the Amazon
1996 Leica Gallery, NY. From the Sunshine State
1996 Photographic Festival, Aubenas, France. Hot Light/Half-Made Worlds
1996 Leica Gallery, Solms, Ger. Haiti
1995 Galerie Lichtblick, Cologne, Germany. Mexico
1995 Drew University Photography Gallery, Madison, N.J. From Mexico
1992 L'Espace National, Bayonne, France
1992 Studio Marangoni, Florence, Italy
1991 Focale Gallery, Nyons, Switzerland
1989 Sala de Exposiciones del Canal de Isabel II, Madrid, Spain
1987 Torino Fotografia, Museo dell'Automobile, Torino, Italy
1986 Canon Photo Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
1983 Gallerie Magnum, Paris, France

Group Exhibitions

2004 Benaki Museum, Athens, Gr. Periplus (Museum of Photography, Thessalonika, Gr.,
Onassis Foundation, NY)
2003 McMullen Museum, Chesnut Hill, Ma. Common Ground: Photographers on the Street.
2002 Catherine Edelman Gallery, Chicago, Ill. Anniversary
2001 NY Historical Society, NYC, NY. New York Sept 11, 2001, Magnum group
2001 Here is New York, Prince St, NYC, NY
1997 Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pa. India: A Celebration of Independence
(travelled)
1997 Bohen Foundation, NYC,. ABACA exhibition
1995 Art Institute of Boston, Boston, Ma. Civilians in War
1995 Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego. Points of Entry (Travelled: Center for
Creative Photography, Tucson, Az., Friends of Photography, San Francisco, Jewish
Museum, New York
1995 Whitney Museum at Champion, Stamford, Conn. Fact and Fiction
1994 Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Sevilla, Spain. Sevilla Vista Por: Miradas Fin de Siglo
1993 Circulo de Bellas Artes, Madrid, Spain. Madrid Vista Por: Miradas Fin de Siglo
1992 Tamayo Museum, Mexico City, Mexico. Mexico Through Foreign Eyes (travelled, 1993
International Center of Photography, New York)
1991 Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Biennial Exhibition
1989 International Center of Photography, NYC, NY. In Our Time: The World as Seen by
Magnum Photographers. (Also at Centre Nationale de la Photographie, Palais de
Tokyo, Paris, France)
1989 Alternative Museum, NYC, NY. Mon Reve/ My Dream: Haiti
1989 Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, Ca. Haiti: Revolution in Progress (Also at
Sterling Art Center, Texas Southern University, Houston, Texas)
1987 Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago Ill.
1987 Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, Ca. Masters of the Street
1986 Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minn. On the Line: The New Color Photojournalism.
(Travelled: Portland Museum of Art, Portland Me. Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence,
Kan. Laguna Gloria Art Museum, Austin, Texas; Carnegie Mellon University Art
Gallery, Pittsburgh, Pa. Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio)
1983 California Museum of Photography, Riverside, Ca. Color in the Street
1983 Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Cambridge, Mass. Grave Relics
1980 Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Mass. Color Photography
1975 Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Mass. Contemporary Photographers V

Collections

Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, USA
Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, USA
Davison Art Center, Wesleyan College, Middleton, Co, USA
Fogg Museum of Art, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
Fondazione Italiana per la Fotografia, Torino, Italy
Fuji Museum, Japan
George Eastman House, Rochester, USA
Getty Center for the Arts and Humanities, Santa Monica, USA
Hasselblad Foundation, Goteborg, Sweden
High Museum of Art, Atlanta, USA
International Center of Photography, New York, USA
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, USA
Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, USA
Museum of Fine Art, Houston, USA
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA
Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, USA
Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, USA
Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Maine, USA
Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, USA
Southeast Museum of Photography, Daytona Beach, USA
University Gallery, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA

Books
2007 Istanbul: City of a Hundred Names, Aperture, New York
2003 Alex Webb Habla Con Max Kozloff, La Fabrica, Spain
2003 Crossings: Photographs from the U.S.-Mexico Border, Monacelli Press, USA
1998/99 Dislocations, Film Study Center at Harvard University, USA
1997 Amazon: From the Floodplains to the Clouds, Monacelli Press, Inc., USA
1996 From The Sunshine State, Monacelli Press, Inc., USA
1989 Under a Grudging Sun: Photographs from Haiti Libere, Thames & Hudson, USA
1986 Hot Light/Half-Made Worlds: Photographs from the Tropics, Thames & Hudson, USA