MAX YAVNO, Garage Doors, San Francisco, 1947, 10.375x13.375" Gelatin silver print, Printed 1970s, Signed in pencil on mount recti below lower right of print. Inscribed in pencil on mount verso: #11.

Yavno is best known for his work in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Social documentary photographer Max Yavno (1911-1985) identified the odd charm that constitutes the identity of a place and people. Born in New York, Yavno was a social worker from 1932-1936. He is best known for his depictions of great American cities and the cultural and social detail of their inhabitants, many of which distinctively reflect their era. In 1936, Yavno began photographing New York street life for the Works Progress Administration's Federal Theater Project. As his interest in photography burgeoned, Yavno joined the Photo League and served as its president in the late 1930s. Through this organization he met Aaron Siskind, who became his roommate and lifelong friend. During World War II, Yavno served in the United States Army Air Force as a film and photography instructor. Following the war, he relocated to San Francisco and continued teaching. There, Yavno began a freelance career with clients including Vogue and Harper's Bazaar. During this time he achieved success both as a fine art and commercial photographer.

Yavno was included in Seventeen American Photographers, a 1947 exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. This placed him alongside established photographers Berenice Abbott, Ansel Adams, Man Ray, and Edward Weston. Following this pivotal exhibition, Yavno published The San Francisco Book in 1948 and The Los Angeles Book in 1950, both of which chronicled the urban landscape and its population. By 1952, Edward Steichen had purchased Yavno's prints for The Museum of Modern Art. With recommendations by Edward Weston and Steichen, he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1953. From 1954-1975, Yavno owned and operated a thriving commercial photography studio in Los Angeles.

In 1975, the sixty-four-year-old photographer closed his studio to allow for more personal pursuits. Yavno continued to photograph California, but also worked in Mexico, Morocco, Israel, and Egypt, securing funds for the later trips from the National Endowment for the Arts. The Photography of Max Yavno was published by the University of California press in 1981, to accompany a retrospective at Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery. Yavno continued to make and exhibit photographic works until his death in 1985.

CREDIT: Center for Creative Photography
https://ccp.arizona.edu/artists/max-yavno

Excellent. Minor surface wear. Rectangular area of discoloration on mount recto around print.