George Pickow | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1922-02-11)February 11, 1922 |
| Died | December 10, 2010(2010-12-10) (aged 88) |
| Known for | Photography,Film |
George Pickow (February 11, 1922 – December 10, 2010) was an American photographer and filmmaker who chronicled the folk and jazz music scenes in the United States, United Kingdom, and other countries.[1] He was married to the well-known Kentucky folk musicianJean Ritchie.
Pickow was born inLos Angeles but grew up inBrooklyn,New York.[2] In the early 1940s, he was introduced to folk music when he heardCisco Houston andWoody Guthrie jamming every night in a tiny cabin at the left-wingCamp Unity inupstate New York. Pickow studied painting atCooper Union and made training films for the Navy inWorld War II.
In 1952, Pickow accompanied his wifeJean Ritchie on aFulbright Scholarship to collect folk songs in Britain and Ireland. WhenAlan Lomax, then working out of London for theBBC, and his collaboratorPeter Kennedy of theEnglish Folk Dance and Song Society, decided to document the uniqueMay Eve and May Day Festivals atPadstow inCornwall, they selected Pickow to be their cameraman. The result was the 16-minute color filmOss Oss Wee Oss (1953).[2]
In 1961, Pickow and Lomax collaborated on a short film documentary about theGreenwich Village folk revival scene intended to be shown on the BBC. This never happened, however, and ten years later Alan's daughterAnna Lomax Wood, edited the surviving scraps and fragments in her father's office into a short film,Ballads, Blues, and Bluegrass. In addition to Ritchie,Ballads, Blues, and Bluegrass features what one reviewer called "killer footage"[3] of performances byClarence Ashley,Guy Carawan,Willie Dixon,Ramblin' Jack Elliott,Roscoe Holcomb,Peter La Farge,Ernie Marrs,The New Lost City Ramblers,Memphis Slim, and the first known footage of a very youngDoc Watson. In the audience areMaria Muldaur andBob Dylan. Despite apocryphal tales,John Cohen of theNew Lost City Ramblers affirms that Bob Dylan is not the male clog dancer at the beginning of the film.[4]
In 1967, he helped film theNewport Folk Festival.[2]
His photographs depict many musical artists, ranging fromLouis Armstrong,Little Richard, andTheodore Bikel, toPete Seeger andJudy Collins, as well as visual artists such asEdward Hopper and the modelPamela Green.[5] He marketed his imagery through the international agencyThree Lions Inc.[6] for which he was the principal photographer, then partner.[2]
His career also included an extensive documentation of Jean Ritchie's work and his photographs illustrated many of her books. In 1996 the Ritchie Pickow Photographic Archive was acquired by the James Hardiman Library,National University of Ireland, Galway.[citation needed]
Pickow and Ritchie met in 1948 at a square dance at theHenry Street Settlement. The following day, Pickow invited her to accompany him on a photo shoot at theFulton Fish Market. "The result — Ms. Ritchie perched on the hood of a truck, holding a rather large lobster — was published in a trucking-industry magazine."[7] They married in 1950 and had two sons, Peter and Jon.
Pickow, who had been in declining health for some time, died December 10, 2010, two days after his wife Jean Ritchie's 88th birthday.[8]
US photographer and film-maker who chronicled the heyday of folk and jazz
