photographer, and in a 2000 interview with Vicki
Goldberg, Kozloff remarked on his evolution:
What’s guided me all along has been the hope of achieving
a kind of intelligible obscurity. I first noticed it when I
started photographing store windows, around 1976. These
windows are particularly compromised surfaces, since they
simultaneously let us see into their contents while interrupt-
ing them with reflections, at some illusory remove of the
world around us. The model was Atget. There was some-
thing innately pictorial about this experience, which eva-
porated in the round, and left only my flat transcription of
it. The spectacle provided by store windows was, in pictor-
ial terms, of double exposure, of disintegration, of seeing
and not seeing. Confusing and frustrating as this situation
was, it taught me about the larger equivocations of the
visible world. The photograph became a kind of dream.
While a regular exhibitor on the New York scene,
Kozloff’s 1998 joint exhibition with his wife Joyce
Kozloff, Crossed Purposes, at the List Gallery,
Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania, toured the Uni-
ted States. Featuring Joyce Kozloff’s map paintings
alongside a survey of Max Kozloff’s color street
photography,Crossed Purposesfocused on Kozl-
off’s celebration of the rich diversity of urban life,
especially festivals and street fairs. Much of Kozl-
off’s work centers on the notion, in his words, of
‘‘chance intimacies,’’ and these photographs cap-
ture not only the aesthetics of the setting, but also
demonstrate Kozloff’s intellectual and emotional
commitment to social change and activism. At the
same time, his photographs often have a tender
poignancy, provoking discussion about evidence,
perception, and subjectivity in photography.
Additionally, Kozloff has curated many critically
praised exhibitions, including the 2002New York:
Capital of Photographyat The Jewish Museum,
which examined how street photographers have
come to define urban perception as the characteris-
tic visual experience of modernity. Corresponding
with his own interests in street photography, this
exhibition presented a survey of over 100 images of
the genre spanning the twentieth century. As well,
the exhibition sought to examine the photogra-
pher’s response to the city in the context of a Jewish
sensibility, beginning with the work of Alfred Stieg-
litz and his circle up to works by contemporary
photographers. Kozloff’s most recent book, also
examining work,New Yorkers: As Seen by Magnum
Photographers, was published by Powerhouse
Books in 2003.
In a 1997 reflection, Kozloff concisely encapsu-
lates his view on photography and criticism and the
ways in which they interact and crossover, both in
his own work and in life:
An educated eye, a sociopolitical critique, a self-affirm-
ing consciousness: these arestrong assets of any criticism.
Only let them be combined with and worked through
each other, so that they may be mutually informed yet
moderate by their competing interests. Let them reach
toward, rather than shun the photographic image. Let it
be realized that the pictures themselves may have an
unexpected impact, but won’t bite. The age of the
image needs a reaffirmation of photographic criticism as
a separate field concerned with filtrates of memory, rich
in portents of art, yet based in the material witness of life.
Kozloff is the recipient of many awards, includ-
ing a Pulitzer Award for Criticism and a Fulbright
Fellowship in 1962; the Frank Jewett Mather Prize
for Art Criticism and the Ingram-Merrill Founda-
tion Award in 1965; a Guggenheim Fellowship in
1969 and the NEA Fellowship for Art Criticism in- In 1984, Kozloff received a national Endow-
ment for the Arts Criticism Fellowship. In 1990, he
was awarded the International Center of Photogra-
phy’s Writing Award. Kozloff continues to practice
photography and criticism in New York today.
MelissaRenn
Seealso:Portraiture; Street Photography
Biography
Born in Chicago, Illinois on June 21, 1933. Attended the
University of Chicago, where he received both his BA in
1953 and his MA in Art History in 1958. Studied at the
Institute of Fine Arts of New York University, 1960–1964.
In 1967, he married the artist Joyce Kozloff. Art Critic,
The Nation, 1961–1969; New York Editor,Art Interna-
tional, 1961–1964; Executive Editor ofArtforum, 1974–- Pulitzer Award for Criticism, 1962; Fulbright Fel-
lowship, 1962; Frank Jewett Mather Prize for Art Criti-
cism, 1965; Ingram-Merrill Foundation Award, 1965;
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, 1969;
National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for Art
Criticism, 1972 and 1984; International Center of Photo-
graphy’s Writing Award, 1990. Lecturer at Art Institute of
Chicago, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque (1978),
California Institute of Arts, Valencia (1970), Queens Col-
lege of City University of New York (1973), and Washing-
ton Square College of New York University (1961).
Taught at California Institute of Arts, 1970–1971; Yale
University in 1974. Living in New York City.
Selected Individual and Group Exhibitions
1977, 1970, 1980Max Kozloff, Holly Solomon Gallery,
New York
1982 Max Kozloff, Marlborough Gallery, New YorkKOZLOFF, MAX