Jack Mitchell (photographer)

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.^[1][2]

Early life

Mitchell was born in Key West, Florida, in 1925;^[3] his family moved to New Smyrna Beach, Florida, in 1932. He started photography at eleven, as the darkroom assistant to his sister. He then moved on to taking his own photographs, and was soon contributing photographs to the Daytona News Journal and New Smyrna Beach News.^[4] He earned his living from photography since he was fifteen, when his first nationally published photograph, a portrait of his oil painting instructor, appeared in The Complete Photographer.

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.^[4] 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:

John Lennon and Yoko Ono

Cover of the December 1980 People. Photo by Jack Mitchell

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.^[6] John Yau commented:

Twelve of Mitchell's photographs of Lennon and Ono appear in Ono's book John Lennon: Summer of 1980.^{[n 1]}

Books

In the 1960s, Mitchell published the photobooks American Dance Portfolio^{[n 2]} and, for younger readers, Dance Scene U.S.A.: America's Greatest Ballet and Modern Dance Companies in Photographs.^{[n 3]}

Mitchell is the author of Icons and Idols: A Photographer's Chronicle of the Arts, 1960–1995,^{[n 4][8][9]} which has been called “a stunning exhibition of 137 black and white photographs featuring icons of American culture”.^{[10][n 5]}

Mitchell's book on the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is published as Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater: Jack Mitchell Photographs.^{[n 6]}

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.”^[11]

The Baltimore Museum of Art owns a number of Mitchell's portraits.^[4]

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.^[12]

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.^[13][14]

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:

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^[15] 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.^[16]