Ida Wymam
ARTIST STATEMENT
When I began working in the 1940’s, few women were doing magazine photography in a field that was almost exclusively male. I started as a “girl” mail room boy at Acme Newspictures (later UPI) and soon after was receiving assignments from Business Week, This Week, Collier’s, Life, Fortune and other major publications.As I progressed from box camera to Speed Graphic (my first professional camera), and then to a Rolleiflex, I stopped thinking about the mechanics of film speed, f.stops, shutter speed and began focusing on subject matter that interested me. What interested me so much were ordinary people and their everyday activities. Early on, I had documented children’s games and unusual architectural details, in my own Bronx neighborhood. I decided to expand, to go elsewhere, taking the subway to Harlem, Chinatown, and lower Manhattan, exploring those neighborhoods and looking for photos.
Wearing the camera trumped my shyness. It enabled me to talk to complete strangers hearing their stories, satisfying the strong curiosity to know more about whomever or wherever, which I’ve had since childhood (and happily still have today). Usually, conversation preceded the photo, but it was alright with my subjects if I shot first. I wasn’t hiding. I wasn’t threatening and I wore saddle shoes with bobby socks.
Body postures, expressions, clothing, work instruments, and especially light and its effect on the scene were elements which caught my attention. Whatever the subject, I felt very strongly that I needed to take the picture. The feeling was very compelling. I was thrilled with late afternoon cross lighting. I was filled with the excitement of my discoveries in my photos. Looking at the contact sheets, just a few days later, evoked the feelings and memories of the people I had met. I did not consciously think about why I wanted the photo at that moment except that it pleased something within me. I have thought about this many years later as a certain synchrony of heart, eye and brain.
I became a member of the Photo League in 1946. I considered myself a documentary photographer and the League’s philosophy of honest photography appealed to me. I also began to understand the power of photos to help improve the social order by showing the conditions under which many people lived and worked. Even after leaving the League the following year, I continued to emphasize visual and social realities in my straightforward photographs. Fortunately, I never had an assignment where an editor asked me to negatively distort a story.
Beginning with my earliest photos seeing New York City with my feet, and in whatever part of the country I was in, I continued my own walkabout, learning the area, engaging my subject, listening and respecting their dignity. This continued to be my approach when taking photos.
RESUME
SOLO EXHIBITS2010 Stephen Cohen Gallery, Los Angeles: The Lost Ektachromes
2009 Wisconsin Veterans Museum, Madison: Welcome Home Boys
2008 Madison Museum of Contemporary Art; Madison: Individual Experience: The Photographs of Ida Wyman
2007 Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Madison: Individual Experience
2000 Virginia Center for the Creative Arts: Book Project
2000 Soho Triad Fine Arts Gallery, New York City: A Photographic Diary
1985 New York City Technical College, Grace Gallery: Ida Wyman Photographs
1984 Photographics Unlimited Gallery, New York: Early Work
1983 New York City Poster and Photo Show: Hollywood
1980 The New York Public Library, New York City: Works by Ida Wyman
JOINT EXHIBITS
2004 Stephen Cohen Gallery, Los Angeles: Forties and Fifties of New York and Los Angeles with Louis Faurer
2002 Apex Gallery, Los Angeles: America Mid Century-Two View with Larry Silver
GROUP EXHIBITS
2010 Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Madison: Apple Pie
2009 John Cleary Gallery, Houston: Various Group Shows
2009 Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Madison: Curator’s Choice-Works from the Collection
2009 Monroe Gallery of Photography, Santa Fe: City of New York
2009 Monroe Gallery of Photography, Santa Fe: Masters of Photojournalism
2008 John Cleary Gallery, Houston: Various Group Shows
2008 Stephen Cohen Gallery, Beverly Hills: Natura Morte
2008 Monroe Gallery of Photography, Santa Fe: Making Movies
2007 John Cleary Gallery, Houston: Various Group Shows
2007 Monroe Gallery of Photography, Santa Fe: The Love of the Game
2007 Monroe Gallery of Photography, Santa Fe: Women Who Shot the Twentieth Century
2006 John Cleary Gallery, Houston: Various Group Shows
2006 Monroe Gallery of Photography, Santa Fe: The Arts
2005 John Cleary Gallery, Houston: Various Group Shows
2005 Monroe Gallery of Photography, Santa Fe: When We Were Young
2005 Monroe Gallery of Photography, Santa Fe: The Bold and the Beautiful
2005 Monroe Gallery of Photography, Santa Fe: Hollywood, USA
2005 Santa Fe Museum of Art: Auction/Show
2004 John Cleary Gallery, Houston: Various Group Shows
2003 Stephen Daiter Gallery, Chicago
2002 Soho Triad Fine Arts Gallery: New Finds/Old Favorites
2002 Long Island University / Brooklyn (SUNY): Jews of Brooklyn
2001 Soho Triad Fine Arts Gallery: New Finds/Old Favorites
2001 Commune di Venezia, Venice: The Photo League
2000 Sephora Gallery, New York City: Hollywood Stars
2000 Galleria Carlos Sozzani, Milan: The Photo League
2000 Fundacion Municipal y Cultura, Vallodalid, Spain: The Photo League
2000 Amore Mills Gallery, Scottsdale, Arizona: Mothers and Children
2000 John Cleary Gallery, Houston, Texas: Works of Photo League Members
2000 International Center of Photography, New York City: The Photography of Celebrity
1999 The New York City Public Library: From the Photo Collections
1999 Apex Gallery, Los Angeles: New York City:The City You Love to Hate
1999 Soho Triad Fine Arts Gallery, New York City: Visions of Childhood
1999 Friends of Photography Gallery, Woodstock, New York: Auction
1998 Bonni Benrubi Gallery, New York City: The Fabulous Fifties
1997 Soho Triad Fine Arts, New York City: Visions of Childhood
1996 LIFE Magazine Photo Gallery, New York City: Favorites
1999 FELLOWSHIP AWARD by the Virginia Center for the Arts
Bibliography and Press
AIPAD Panel Discussion on The Photo League
Columbus Museum of Art Interview and Video on The Photo League
Vanity Fair Interview on The Photo League
Huntington Library’s This Side of Paradise: Body and Landscape of Los Angeles Photographs
The Capital Times Madison, WI-Interview
Live at Five Madison, WI TV Interview
B&W Magazine
The Village Voice, New York
Gannett Newspapers, LA Times
Pasa Tiempo, Santa Fe
Popular Photography
The American Photographic Historical Society’s Photographica
The Riverdale Press, Bronx
This Was the Photo League
Career Photography (Ida Wyman-Early Photojournalist, and Scientific Photographer)
Ronald Reagan-A Life in Picture; LIFE Books
Life with Mother; Time Warner Books
Permanent Collections
The New York Public Library
The Madison Museum of Contemporary Art
The Museum of the City of New York
Museum of Modern Art (NY)
The Huntington Museum (Pasadena, CA)
The Columbus Museum of Fine Art
The San Jose Museum of Art
University of Louisville Ekstrom Library
Private collections
Speaking Engagements
Madison Museum of Contemporary Art-PowerPoint slide/lecture about my career
University of Wisconsin-Madison Graduate Photography Lecture
International Center of Photography New York City Photography Department Darkroom Course
Empire State College (SUNY), Photojournalism Courses
Riverdale Women’s Forum, New York City
Professional Women Photographers, New York City
American Society of Picture Professionals, New York City
Professional History
1983-1990
Photo assignments for The New York Times, Gannet Newspapers, Chemical Bank, Children’s Aid Society, US Magazine, Murdoch Publications, Inc. Magazine, The American Lawyer, New York City Business, New York City Chamber of Commerce and others.
1968-1983
Chief Photographer, Department of Pathology, College of Physicians & Surgeons (Columbia University) in New York City. Responsible for scientific photographs, staff portraits, as well as documenting various departmental activities. Producing photomicrographs in color and black and white, used for teaching, scientific publications, seminars, textbooks and slide shows.
1962-1968
Photographer / Scientific Assistant Haskins Laboratories, New York City. Responsible for photographic documentation of subjects in basic research projects.
1951-1962
Homemaker hiatus.
1945-1951
Photo assignments for Business Week, Fortune, Life, Amerika, Coronet, Pageant, Saturday Evening Post, The American Magazine, This Week and other major publications of the day. Assignments were human interest ranging from animals (calf quintuplets, Bonzo the Chimp, Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer), labor leaders (W. Reuther), industry (Chance Vought Aircraft, Oneida silverware), politicians (R. Nixon), celebrities (Elizabeth Taylor, James Cagney, Ronald Reagan), a Marine wedding, and a laughing contest are some examples.
1943-1945
Worked as first mail room “boy“Acme Newspictures, New York City. ”Pulled” wet enlargements from darkroom sinks, dried prints on gas-jet ferrotype conveyor belt, captioned prints for delivery to clients. Became Acme’s first “girl“ photo printer. Left Acme to begin freelance assignments for various picture magazines.