It’s hard to believe that just half a century ago, most museums and universities did not have photography departments or programs. Despite photography’s long-standing influence and impact, it has largely been excluded from the realm of fine art. Frish Brandt, now President of Fraenkel Gallery in San Francisco, recalls: “In the late 1970s, there was no such thing as a famous photographer. Maybe Ansel Adams and Edward Weston would qualify, but it was such a small audience.”
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A few years after moving to San Francisco in 1974, Brandt got her start in photography at the Imogen Cunningham Trust. A decade later, she began working with Jeffrey Fraenkel, who founded Fraenkel Gallery in 1979. After officially joining the gallery in 1985, Brandt became partner in 1989 and president in 2015, crafting a path that did not previously exist.
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“It’s hard to believe that it’s that recent, and we could still be pioneers,” she says, looking back at the era. “We weren’t alone but we were in a small group. San Francisco has always been very ‘photofilic’, shall we say. There were a few galleries here and a few in New York but at that point having a photography gallery was a recipe for disaster. Kenneth Baker moved out here to be the art reviewer for the Chronicle, and publicly said that photography is not art. He has since come around on that in a big way.”
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Read the Full Story at British Journal of Photography
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