Taliesin West Honors Photographer Pedro E. Guerrero

The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation presents a rarely seen original photography collection from well-known architectural photographer, Pedro E. Guerrero, at Taliesin West from Oct. 18 through Nov. 14.

The collection is a work of 14 original, signed photographs taken by Guerrero at Taliesin West between 1940s and 1950s when he served as Frank Loyd Wright’s official photographer. The prints will be on display in situ, meaning within the places they were taken, at Wright’s winter home in Scottsdale. This year, the National Historic Landmark celebrates its 80th anniversary.

Wright and Guerrero. PHOTO BY KENEJI DOMOTO

“I’m delighted that Pedro’s work will be shown at Taliesin West, the place he really became a photographer back in 1939 when Wright hired him on the spot to document the work there. He was fresh out of art school and had never seen anything like it. He said he approached it as if it were sculpture and that seemed to please Frank Lloyd Wright,” says Dixie Guerrero, Guerrero’s widow.

Guerrero was one of the country’s most distinguished architectural photographers of his time, known best for his work with Wright, Alexander Calder and Louise Nevelson. He was 22 in 1939 when he drove from his home in Mesa, Ariz., to a new architecture school housed in a low-slung complex of buildings to inquire about a job and show his portfolio to the head architect. That architect was Wright who took an amused look at his portfolio of photographs and hired him to document his work. Thus, began a 20-year friendship and the result produced some of the most powerful photographs ever taken of Wright and his work.

“Wright’s vision for Taliesin West was of a simple, but sophisticated winter camp for his family and the Taliesin Fellowship. It was both primitive and eloquent, made up of angles and patterns created by stone, wood, and canvas and brought to life by light and shadow,” says Margo Stipe, the foundation’s curator of collections. “Pedro Guerrero was here when both he and Taliesin West were very young and he said he found photographing the site both challenging and enchanting. At least some of that enchantment is clearly seen in these wonderful photographs that capture the rhythm and the rugged romanticism of these spaces and the landscape in the early years.”

2018 Pedro E. Guerrero Archive 5

In celebration of the showing, a lecture by Dr. Emily Bills will take place the night before the collection’s unveiling about the significance of Guerrero’s work on Oct. 17.

Notable Arizona photographer Andrew Pielage will also host “Photographing Wright,” a two-day photography seminar at Taliesin West on Oct. 26 – 28. Participants will learn the tools needed to best utilize a camera and apply creative approaches to composition, image framing and the challenges of light and shadow, including capturing sunrise and sunset.

“For me, Guerrero’s iconic, timeless images are where it all began. The pairing of Wright and Guerrero amplified Wright’s reach and captured his buildings in ways that are still emulated today,” says Pielage. “With Guerrero’s images, we can gain insight into how Wright wanted us to view these spaces and how we can best portray them.”


Guerrero Collection

Oct. 18 – Nov. 14

Lecture by Dr. Emily Bills • Oct. 17, 7 – 8 p.m.

Photographing Wright (photography seminar) • Oct. 26 – 28

Taliesin West, 12621 N. Frank Lloyd Wright Blvd., Scottsdale

For more information/tickets, visit franklloydwright.org.

 

About Perrine Adams

Perrine Adams is the Managing Editor of The Red Book and Lifestyle Editor for Frontdoors Magazine.

From Frontdoors Magazine

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