Elaine Mayes | American, 1936 -
Elaine Mayes’ photographs bridge multiple forms of documentary image making, both the poetic and conceptual aspects of the medium are expressed in her many projects that range from portraits of 1960’s youth in the Haight Ashbury district of San Francisco to her photographs framed by her moving car window in Autolandscapes.
Mayes taught photography and film at The University of Minnesota, Hampshire College - where she joined Jerome Liebling as part of the founding faculty, Cooper Union, The International Center of Photography, Pratt Institute, Bard College, and New York University where she was Chair of the Photography and Imaging Department from 1996 to her retirement 2001. Currently she is Professor Emerita in the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University.
Her photographs have been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Brooklyn Museum, de Young Museum and the Smithsonian Art Museum, among others.
She was the recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, and a Guggenheim Fellowship.
Mayes' photographs are held within numerous museums collections, including: the J. Paul Getty Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Museum of Modern Art, Center for Creative Photography, George Eastman Museum, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard, and the National Museum of American Art.