Max Yavno archive

Social documentary photographer Max Yavno (1911-1985) identified the odd charm that constitutes the identity of a place and people. Born in New York, Yavno was a social worker from 1932-1936; this background clearly informed his photographic career. His humanistic sensibility is revealed in his work, which includes street photographs made in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Yavno is best known for his depictions of these great American cities and the cultural and social detail of their inhabitants, many of which distinctively reflect their era.

In 1936, Yavno began photographing New York street life for the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Theater Project. As his interest in photography burgeoned, Yavno joined the Photo League and served as its President in the late 1930s. Through this organization he met Aaron Siskind who became his roommate and lifelong friend. During World War II, Yavno served in the United States Army Air Force as a film and photography instructor. Following the war, he relocated to San Francisco and continued teaching. There, Yavno began a freelance career with clients including Vogue and Harper's Bazaar. During this time Yavno achieved success both as a fine art and a commercial photographer.

Yavno was included in “Seventeen American Photographers,” a 1947 exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. This placed him alongside established photographers Berenice Abbott, Ansel Adams, Man Ray, and Edward Weston. Following this pivotal exhibition, Yavno published The San Francisco Book in 1948 and The Los Angeles Book in 1950, both of which chronicled the urban landscape and its population. By 1952, Edward Steichen had purchased Yavno’s prints for The Museum of Modern Art, New York. With recommendations by Edward Weston and Steichen, he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1953. From 1954-75, Yavno owned and operated a thriving commercial photography studio in Los Angeles.

In 1975, the sixty-four-year-old photographer closed his studio to allow for more personal pursuits. Yavno continued to photograph California, but also worked in Mexico, Morocco, Israel, and Egypt, securing funds for the later trips from the National Endowment for the Arts. The Photography of Max Yavno was published by the University of California press in 1981, to accompany a retrospective at Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery. Yavno continued to make and exhibit photographic works until his death in 1985.

Chronology

1911

Born April 26 in New York City.

1927

June, graduates from Evander Childs High School in the Bronx, New York; begins working for the New York Stock Exchange as a page boy; begins studies at the City College of New York during evening sessions.

1930

Marries Alyse Abrams and purchases his first camera (divorced 1934).

1932

Receives Bachelor of Social Science degree from the City College of New York.

1932-33

Attends the Graduate School of Business Administration at Columbia University.

1933-34

Enrolls in the graduate program in Political Science at Columbia University.

1935

Employed as a social worker at the New York City Home Relief Bureau.

1936-42

Employed by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) to process artists' applications and as a photographer.

1938-39

President of the Photo League.

1939-42

Shares an apartment with Aaron Siskind in New York.

1942-45

Serves in the United States Army Air Force during World War II as a photography instructor.

1945

Moves to Los Angeles; begins working as a freelance photographer for various magazines, including Vogue and Harper's Bazaar.

1946

Solo exhibition at the American Contemporary Gallery in Los Angeles.

1947

Briefly lives in San Francisco; Siskind visits him.

1948

Publishes The San Francisco Book (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.) with Herb Caen; solo exhibition at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco.

1949

Siskind visits him in Los Angeles.

1950

Publication of The Los Angeles Book (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.) with Lee Shippey.

1952

Edward Steichen acquires nineteen (or twenty in some accounts) Yavno prints for The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

1953

Awarded John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship with recommendations by Edward Weston and Steichen.

1954 and 55

Awarded Art Directors Club Award, New York.

1954-75

Owns and operates a commercial photography studio in Los Angeles.

1962

Publication of The Story of Wine in California (Berkeley: University of California Press) with text by M.F.K. Fisher.

1967

Travels to Europe.

1968

Publication of Natzler Ceramics (Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art).

1972-73

Studies cinematography, University of California at Los Angeles, Graduate Division of Theater Arts.

1975

Travels to Death Valley, California; begins to make personal, artistic photographs.

1976

Solo exhibition at the G. Ray Hawkins Gallery in Los Angeles.

1977

Publication of Portfolio One: Image as Poem (Los Angeles) with text by Ben Maddow; and Silver See (Los Angeles) a group portfolio with text by Victor Landweber; solo exhibition at Halsted Gallery in Birmingham, Michigan.

1978

Solo exhibition at G. Ray Hawkins Gallery in Los Angeles; and at the Gallery for Photographic Arts in New Orleans, Louisiana.

1979

Travels to Israel and Egypt funded by a National Endowment for the Arts grant; solo exhibition at the Gallery for Photographic Arts in North Olmstead, Ohio; and at Marcuse Pfeifer Gallery in New York.

1980

Solo exhibition at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco; and at the Equivalents Gallery in Seattle, Washington and G. Ray Hawkins Gallery in Los Angeles.

1981

October to December, travels to Mexico; Publication of The Photography of Max Yavno (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press) with text by Ben Maddow; retrospective exhibition at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery; exhibition at the Galería Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Cuanhtémoc, Mexico.

1982

Travels to Morocco.

1985

Dies April 4 in Los Angeles.

1992

Archive acquired by the Center for Creative Photography, The University of Arizona.