Weather in your inbox

Forecast Location

Sign Up

By signing up you agree to the Terms & Privacy Policy. Unsubscribe at any time.

After losing all his money in the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and finding little success prospecting for gold and working as a fire ranger, Todd Webb picked up a camera in 1938.

He joined the Chrysler Camera Club and completed a 10-day photo workshop with famed landscape photographer Ansel Adams. The workshop sparked his interest and passion for the medium as he continued honing his skills as a Navy photographer during World War II.

Almost 80 years later, Webb’s works are being celebrated and shown in two New York exhibits. They feature a plethora of his work that captured everyday life and the architecture of New York City, taken after he returned from the war. His work significantly enriches American photographic history, documenting senses of intimacy and rich exploration between history, place and people.

Webb spent his days walking around the streets of New York with a large format camera and tripod, engaging with the people and the landscape around him. He highlights the community as his own, not as an outward gaze looking into an unknowing environment. One glance at his images show straightforward documentations of the city, but a closer look reveals the complex intricacies and details that are the core to the diversity of New York.

A City Seen: Todd Webb’s Postwar New York, 1945-1960 will be on show at the Museum of the City of New York from April 19 through September 4, 2017. More than 100 vintage photographs from the Tobb Webb Archive will be on display, including a selection of his journal entries.

The Curator Gallery in Chelsea, New York will also showcase Webb’s work in Down Any Street: Todd Webb’s NYC Photographs 1946-1960. The show was curated by former editor-in-chief of LIFE Magazine Bill Shapiro. Webb’s vintage prints will be on display from April 20 through May 20, 2017.