Sonya Noskowiak
(American, 1905–1975)
Biography
Sonya Noskowiak was a German-born photographer best known for her creative compositions and portraiture, as well as her membership in Group f.64, a collective of photographers dedicated to sharp-focused images and the use of the large format camera’s smallest aperture. Noskowiak was born in Leipzig, Germany in 1900, but she spent her childhood in Chile, Panama, and eventually, California. Her photography career began when she was hired as a studio assistant to photographer Johan Hagemeyer in 1929, and it began to take off after her introduction to Edward Weston, whom she lived and worked with for six years. Noskowiak’s early work is characterized by sharply focused abstractions of nature and architecture. She first exhibited her work in 1933 at Group f.64’s show at M. H. de Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco, alongside photographs by Weston, Ansel Adams, and Imogen Cunningham. In 1935 Noskowiak went on to open her own portrait studio, and became celebrated for her ability to capture a subject’s mood and inner world through posing alone. Most notable among her subjects was author John Steinbeck, whose portrait is still widely circulated, often without credit to Noskowiak. She passed away in 1975 in Marin County, after a 10 year battle with bone cancer. A collection of 454 prints can be seen at the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, Arizona.
Sonya Noskowiak
(56 results)
.jpg "Untitled (woman's hand), created: 1937–printed: 1937")
Sonya Noskowiak
First United Methodist Church, Eureka, CA., 1940
Sale Date: May 16, 2024
Auction Closed
Sonya Noskowiak
Portrait of the artist Carlos Dyer, c. 1936, 1936
Sale Date: August 23, 2022
Auction Closed
.jpg "Agave (Cactus), 1933–1933")
.jpg "Bridge detail (San Simeon Highway), 1933")
English (US)
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