Early life

Born in New York City in 1934, Loengard became interested in photography at the age of eleven, when, at the end of World War II, his father spoke of buying a new camera. Loengard began to take pictures for his high school newspaper. In 1956, when he was a senior at Harvard College, Life magazine asked him to photograph a freighter run aground on Cape Cod—an assignment that began Loengard’s long association with the publication. Of his heroes, Henri Cartier-Bresson, W. Eugene Smith, and Robert Frank, Loengard wrote “They mixed their feelings with reportage in strong new ways. It was my plan to do so, too.”

Career

When Life magazine suspended weekly publication in 1972, Loengard became the picture editor of ten semi-annual Life "Special Reports." He was the picture editor of Time Inc.'s Magazine Development Group, planning and launching People magazine in 1974. He was instrumental, in 1978, in Life's rebirth as a monthly. In 1986, that publication won the first award for "Excellence in Photography" ever given by the American Society of Magazine Editors. Loengard continued as Life's picture editor until 1987. He is the author of ten books on photography.

In 2004 Loengard was given the Henry R. Luce “Lifetime Achievement Award” from Time Inc.. In 2005 American Photo magazine identified Loengard as “One of the 100 most influential people in photography.”

“Photographer and picture editor, mentor and oracle, curator and historian, critic and scholar—over the years, John Loengard has assumed all of these roles,” wrote Vanity Fair magazine, “with élan and focus, obstinacy and whip-smart intelligence.”

Exhibitions

• International Center for Photography, New York City, 1987
• LIFE Gallery of Photography, New York City, 1987
• U.S.I.S. Exhibitions in Kenya, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana and South Africa, 1988-89
• James Danziger Gallery, New York City, 1994
• Saidye Bronfman Center, Montreal, Quebec, 1996
• Apex (David) Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, 2005
• Leica Gallery, New York City, 2005
• The Arts Company, Nashville, TN, 2005
• Gallery M, Denver, CO, 2005
• Madelyn Jordan Fine Arts, Scarsdale, NY, 2005
• Schirmer / Mosel Showroom, Munich, Germany, 2006
• University of Kentucky Art Museum, Lexington, KY, 2007
• Afterimage Gallery, Dallas, TX, 2008
• The Century Association, New York City, 2009
• George Eastman House, Rochester, NY, 2010
• Henry Fox Talbot Museum, Lacock Abbey, England, 2010
• Leica Gallery, New York City, 2011
• Monroe Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, 2011
• Etherton Gallery, Tucson, AZ, 2012
• Celebrating the Negative (traveling exhibition), 2013 (ongoing)

Bibliography

• Pictures Under Discussion (New York: Amphoto, 1987), ISBN 0-8174-5539-6
• LIFE Classic Photographs: A Personal Interpretation by John Loengard (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1988), ISBN 0-8212-1714-3
• LIFE Faces, with Commentary by John Loengard (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1991), ISBN 0-02-574043-1
• Celebrating the Negative (New York: Arcade Publishing, Inc., 1994), ISBN 1-55970-282-6
• Georgia O'Keeffe at Ghost Ranch (Munich: Schirmer / Mosel, 1995), ISBN 3-88814-745-X; (New York: Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 1995), ISBN 1-55670-423-2; (New York: Te Neues, 1998), ISBN 3-8238-9965-1
• LIFE Classic Photographs: A Personal Interpretation by John Loengard, Updated With New Photographs (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1996), ISBN 0-8212-2263-5
• LIFE Photographers: What They Saw (New York: Bullfinch Press, 1998), ISBN 0-8212-2518-9
• The Great LIFE Photographers (New York: Bulfinch Press, 1988), ISBN 978-0-8212-2892-0
• As I See It (New York: Vendome Press, 2005), ISBN 086565-167-1; (London: Thames & Hudson, 2005), ISBN 0-500-54307-0; Monografie John Loengard (Paris: Éditions de La Martininiere, 2005), ISBN 2-7324-3368-3
• Georgia O’Keeffe / John Loengard Paintings & Photographs (Munich: Schirmer / Mosel, 2006), ISBN 3-8296-0103-4, ISBN 978-3-8296-0103-0; Image and Imagination, Georgia O’Keeffe by John Loengard (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2007), ISBN 0-8118-6132-5
• Age of Silver: Encounters with Great Photographers (Brooklyn: powerHouse Books, 2011), ISBN 978-1-57687-587-2

[ Source: Wikipedia ]