Jack Mitchell
Age: 99
Birthplace: Key West, Florida, U.S.
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Jack Mitchell (September 13, 1925 - November 7, 2013) was an American photographer and author best known for his photographs of American artists, dancers, film and theatre performers, musicians and writers.
In 1950, four years after completion of duty as a public relations photographer for the U.S. Army in Florence and Venice, Mitchell moved from Florida to New York City. The dancer and choreographer Ted Shawn suggested that he concentrate on photographing dance and dancers. The recommendation proved fortuitous as that work provided an avenue to his later success photographing creative and performing artists of all disciplines.
Career
From 1960 to 1970, Mitchell was the official photographer for the American Ballet Theatre, taking all the photographs for their souvenir program books. He also photographed the Boston Ballet, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Pennsylvania Ballet, Houston Ballet, the Martha Graham Dance Company, New York City Ballet and the Paul Taylor Dance Company. He has photographed most of the world's leading dance companies for The New York Times and for Dance Magazine.
Mitchell is possibly best known for his numerous special assignment photographs for the Arts and Leisure section of The New York Times from 1970 to 1995. When he closed his New York studio on December 17, 1995, The Times published a full-page illustrated article about his work and career. Within it, Annette Grant wrote:
“ | Mr. Mitchell, one of the premier arts photographers of our day, is retiring at age 70 and moving back to his home state, Florida. . . . . has included 5,240 assignments in black and white alone. He hasn't kept track of the color, but there have been 163 covers for Dance Magazine and four books. | ” |
John Lennon and Yoko Ono
Mitchell's portrait of musicians John Lennon and Yoko Ono was used on the cover of the December 1980 Lennon Memorial edition of People. The photo was taken in Mitchell's home studio and first published on November 9, 1980, a month before Lennon was killed. John Yau commented:
“ | In his tender portraits of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, which Mitchell took just a few weeks before Lennon was murdered, he has elicited a side of them that was seldom seen, except perhaps by their closest friends. Attentive to their pose, their faces, and even to the texture of their skin and clothes, he infuses his photographs with a palpable tactility. Sensing that we could (and of course we cannot) reach out and touch the weave of Lennon's sweater and Ono's scarf is what makes his photographs of them all the more moving. Around Mitchell, both Lennon and Ono let down their guard. Full of charm we always knew was there, Lennon mugs for the camera, while Ono looks at him both protectively and lovingly. In all of Mitchell's photographs from this session, something of Lennon's touching shyness and Ono's tough-minded sweetness comes through. | ” |
Twelve of Mitchell's photographs of Lennon and Ono appear in Ono's book John Lennon: Summer of 1980.
Books
In the 1960s, Mitchell published the photobooks American Dance Portfolio and, for younger readers, Dance Scene U.S.A.: America's Greatest Ballet and Modern Dance Companies in Photographs.
Mitchell is the author of Icons and Idols: A Photographer's Chronicle of the Arts, 1960-1995, which has been called “a stunning exhibition of 137 black and white photographs featuring icons of American culture”.
Mitchell's book on the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is published as Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater: Jack Mitchell Photographs.
Permanent collections
In 2008, the Smithsonian Institution announced that Mitchell had donated to it "54 large-format photographs of painters and sculptors taken in New York City between 1966 and 1977"; John W. Smith, director of the Archives of American Art, commented that “Jack’s images greatly enhance our already important holdings of artist’s portraits and we look forward to sharing these images with scholars and researchers.”
The Baltimore Museum of Art owns a number of Mitchell's portraits.
Mitchell had a long-standing relationship with the Atlantic Center for the Arts, located in his hometown of New Smyrna Beach. The Jack Mitchell Portrait Gallery displays Mitchell's photographic portraits of ACA Master Artists from 1982-2004. Mitchell himself was an ACA Master Artist in 1983. Mitchell also served on ACA’s National Council advisory board from 1993 to 2006.
Documentary film on Mitchell's life and work
Craig Highberger's documentary on Mitchell's life and work, Jack Mitchell: My Life Is Black And White, shows hundreds of Mitchell's photographs and includes interviews with many of his subjects, including Edward Albee, Clive Barnes, Merce Cunningham, Patti LuPone and Ned Rorem.
Personal life
Mitchell credits much of his success as a photographer to his fifty-two-year life and business partnership with Robert Pavlik, who died in 2009:
“ | Bob took care of my books, taxes, the apartment, and wonderful gourmet cooking for us. And, although he avoided the limelight, he masterminded and cooked for cocktail and dinner parties we had for some . Bob worked hard to help me. | ” |
Death
After a forty-five-year career in New York City, Mitchell retired to New Smyrna Beach, Florida. Until his death, he continued to produce black and white exhibition prints from his negative files and worked on another book of his fifty-five years of dance photography.
On November 7, 2013, at the age of eighty-eight, Mitchell died at his home in New Smyrna Beach.
Gallery
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Leonard Bernstein
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Leontyne Price, 1994