George Tice

Joe's Barber Shop, Paterson, New Jersey

1970

“It takes the passage of time before an image of a commonplace subject can be assessed. The great difficulty of what I attempt is seeing beyond the moment; the everydayness of life gets in the way of the eternal.” --George Tice GEORGE TICE was born in 1938 in Newark, NJ, the state in which his ancestors had lived for generations earlier. He joined a camera club when he was fourteen, and is largely a self taught photographer. Two years later, when his picture of an alleyway was commended by a pro photographer critiquing club members' work, Tice was off and running with what would become his life’s work.. Tice studied commercial photography for a short time at Newark Vocational and Technical High School then decided to join the Navy. After, he worked as a traveling portrait photographer for almost 10 years. In 1959, Edward Steichen, then director of photography at MOMA acquired Tice's photo of an explosion aboard the USS Wasp for the museum. Later he aided Lee Witkin in establishing the seminal Witkin Gallery in NYC. His work was included in the opening group show in 1969 and the first of many solo shows there began the following April. George’s change to larger format cameras in the 60’s furthered his ability to craft carefully toned and detailed prints. He portrayed traditional Amish and Shaker communities, as well as the hard lives of fishermen in Maine. In the 1970s, Tice began explore his native NJ and began to document the vestiges of American culture on the verge of extinction, the work he is best known for. Whether it is the rural people who reside in small communities or suburban buildings and neighborhoods in decline, his great talent is finding deep meaning and emotional content in the most mundane subjects. In 1972, Tice was the subject of a one-man show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A fellow of the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, George Tice’s work is included in more than 80 major museum collections including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, as well as countless private collections. Some of his iconic New Jersey images form the scenic backdrop...

Print: 10/23/98

Edition of 30 Signed, titled, and numbered in pencil on print verso.

Shaker Interior, Sabbathday Lake, Maine Silver print, selenium toned, 1971 Signed in pencil lower right (see photo) Titled verso (see photo) Printed c. 1971 Condition: Excellent Image: 6 1/2 x 9 3/8 inches Frame: 14 x 17 inches Original Kulicke welded frame George A. Tice, born in Newark, New Jersey, United States, October 13, 1938, the son of a college-educated New Jerseyan, William S. Tice, and Margaret Robertson, a Traveller of Irish, Scottish, and Welsh stock with a fourth-grade education. George was raised by his mother, maintaining regular visiting contact with his father, whose influence and advice he valued highly. Education His first contact with photography was in the albums of family photographs belonging to his father, and this gave him the desire to create images of his own. George Tice began with a Kodak Brownie. In 1953, having bought a Kodak Pony, which gave him some control over exposure and focus, and a Kodak developing kit, he began to advance his craft. George Tice also joined the Carteret Camera Club. Tice's photographs of homeless men on the Bowery won second place in the black and white print competitions. George Tice decided at this point to make photography his career. In 1955 George Tice attended the Newark Vocational and Technical High School, where he briefly studied commercial photography under Harve Wobbe. When he turned sixteen, he quit school and took a job as a darkroom assistant for Classic Photo, a portrait studio in Newark. He also worked as a stock boy at Kreske's Department Store in Newark, then as an office boy in the circulation department of the Newark Evening News. In 1956 George Tice enlisted in the United States Navy, in which he rose to the rank of Photographer's Mate Third Class. After boot camp and two years at Naval Air Station Memphis, he was transferred to sea duty aboard the aircraft carrier, USS Wasp...