George Tice

Junked Cars, 1973

George Tice (b. 1938) grew up in Newark, New Jersey, discovering photography at age ten with a Kodak Brownie and refining his craft through self-directed study and membership in local camera clubs. After a stint in the U.S. Navy-during which his photograph of an explosion aboard the USS Wasp ran on the front page of The New York Times, catching the eye of MoMA curator Edward Steichen-he went on to join Magnum Photos in 1972. Over a sixty-year career, Tice brought his exacting eye to both urban and rural America, publishing acclaimed monographs such as Fields of Peace: A Pennsylvania German Album (1970) and Urban Romantic (1982), and revolutionizing fine-art printing by reviving historical processes like platinum palladium and selenium toning. He was the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. His work has been published in numerous books and is held in most of the major museums, including MoMA, the Met, the Getty, the Art Institute of Chicago, SFMOMA, and the Whitney.