At 80-years-old the prolific documentary photographer George S. Zimbel is still photographing with the same acute eye and direct approach as when he first started his career over 65 years ago.
At 80-years-old the prolific documentary photographer George S. Zimbel is still photographing with the same acute eye and direct approach as when he first started his career over 65 years ago. Honing his craft in New York City, working for national magazines Look, The New York Times, RedBooks, Parents and Architectural Forum, amongst others, Zimbel also carried out personal assignments which included as diverse ranging subjects as Marilyn Monroe in Seven Year Itch and capturing Politics in the U.S. and Canada. With a commitment to the straight photograph, Zimbel’s continued refusal of photographic manipulation and computer intervention makes him one of a rare few practicing photographers today. Renowned for his attention to detail and seriousness of surveillance he captures what is really happening as opposed to manipulating a scene. Zimbel once said, "A lot goes into a finished documentary photograph: a very personal view of life, a knowledge of technique, and of course information. It is the information that grabs the viewer, but it is the photographer's art that holds them.”
With work in a number of prestigious collections worldwide including National Gallery of Canada, Museum of Modern Art N.Y.C., Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography and Musée National d’Histoire d’art de Luxembourg, for the next two months Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto will be concentrating on Zimbel’s depictions of children taken over a period of seven decades. Capturing the quintessential moments of childhood with poetic charm and beautiful simplicity, Photographs of Children presents both the innocence of youth and Zimbel’s incredible skill and ability of observation. Regularly producing new work, this exhibition which opens on Thursday through to September 17, could also be seen to show that whilst Zimbel may be 80-years-old he is still very much young at heart.
George S. Zimbel, Photographs of Children runs from July 21 – September 17 at Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto with Artists Talk on Saturday, July 23, 2pm with RSVP required.
Text by Lucia Davies
