Four Score: A Chronology

My mother Frances gave birth to me at Brooklyn Jewish Hospital in New York City on December 19, 1943, and brought me home to our rented house on West 11th Street in Greenwich Village.

ADC in “Red Diaper Baby” phase, Xmas 1943. Photo by Frances Coleman.

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I was 1 when my father Earl was demobbed from the Air Force and returned home from the UK, and the U.S. bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I was 3 when I met my friend Douglas Sheer in the sandbox at a Greenwich Village pre-school. I was 4 when Harry S. Truman got elected President. I was 5 when my brother Dennis was born. I was 7 when my family moved to the south of France, and I became bilingual. I was 8 when we moved to London for six months before returning to New York City, and Dwight D. Eisenhower got elected President. I was 9 when we moved into a railroad flat on West 14th Street and I started fourth grade at P.S. 41 in Greenwich Village. I was 10 when I watched the Army-McCarthy hearings with my parents on our TV set.

Joseph N. Welch (left) being questioned by Senator Joseph McCarthy (right), June 9, 1954

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I was 11 when I entered the AP (Advanced Placement) program at P.S. 3 in Greenwich Village. I was 12 when Dwight D. Eisenhower got re-elected President. I was 13 when we moved to a brownstone on West 70th St. and I entered Stuyvesant High School as a sophomore, and the Soviet Union invaded Hungary, and I discovered jazz and blues. I was 16 when I graduated from Stuyvesant High School and began my freshman year at Hunter College (Bronx campus), and John F. Kennedy got elected President. I was 17 when construction of the Berlin Wall began. I was 19 when I published a controversial play in the Hunter literary magazine Echo, participated in the drafting of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) “Port Huron Statement,” assumed the editorship of the Hunter Arrow, and President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. I was 20 when I watched the Beatles perform live on the Ed Sullivan show, graduated from Hunter College with a B.A. in English Literature, and visited the Soviet Union for the first time (also Japan, India, and Israel), and Lyndon B. Johnson got elected president.

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I was 21 when I entered the Creative Writing graduate program at San Francisco State College, and Bob Dylan went electric at Newport. I was 22 when Demonlover, the rock band of which I was lead vocalist, opened for the Jefferson Airplane at the Fillmore Auditorium. I was 23 when I completed my master’s degree and returned to New York City, and began working as a freelance writer. I was 24 when I hung out my shingle as a photography critic by publishing my first column in the Village Voice, and my son Edward was born, and Richard M. Nixon got elected President. I was 25 when Apollo 11 landed on the moon, and The Binding Force, the rock band of which I was lead vocalist, played The Scene, Steve Paul’s Manhattan club. I was 27 when I published my first column in the New York Times. I was 28 when Richard M. Nixon got re-elected President, and the Watergate scandal erupted. I was 29 when the U.S. abandoned Hanoi and the Vietnam War ended, and I parted company with the Village Voice. I was 30 when I left the New York Times.

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I was 31 when President Richard Nixon resigned in disgrace. I was 32 when I received an Art Critics Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and published my most-cited essay, “The Directorial Mode,” and Jimmy Carter got elected President. I was 33 when I published my first book, The Grotesque in Photography, became the custodial parent of my son, and began teaching at New York University. I was 35 when I published my first collection of essays, Light Readings, and co-founded (with Chris Enos and Jeff Weiss) the Photographic Resource Center (Boston). I was 36 when I served as founding editor of VIEWS: A New England Journal of Photography for the Photographic Resource Center, and Ronald Reagan got elected President. I was 37 when I participated in the founding of the National Writers Union, met Vilem Flusser in Vienna, and returned to France for the first time. I was 40 when Ronald Reagan got re-elected President.

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I was 41 when the original Apple Macintosh personal computer went on sale. I was 42 when I curated a Michael Martone retrospective for the Photo Center Gallery, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. I was 44 when I visited the Soviet Union for the second time, and resumed my role as a working critic of photography by publishing my first column in the New York Observer. I was 45 when George H. W. Bush got elected President. I was 46 when the Berlin Wall began to come down, and when the world celebrated the sesquicentennial of photography. I was 47 when I received an Erna and Victor Hasselblad Foundation Grant (Sweden) for research on the history of the lens. I was 49 when Bill Clinton got elected President, and I was a Guest Scholar at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Santa Monica, CA. I was 50 when I served as a Fulbright Senior Scholar in the Dept. of Photography at Gothenberg University, Sweden.

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I was 51 when I published my second collection of essays, Critical Focus, and published online the first incarnation of the website that gradually evolved into The Nearby Café. I was 52 when I published my next collection of essay, Tarnished Silver: After the Photo Boom, and Looking at Photographs: Animals, a book for children. I was 53 when Bill Clinton got re-elected President, and I served as the Ansel and Virginia Adams Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence, Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, and I left the New York Observer. I was 54 when I published two more collections of essays, Depth of Field and The Digital Evolution, plus an expanded second edition of Light Readings. I was 56 when my mother Frances died. I was 57 when I published my first book of poetry, spine, and George W. Bush got elected President. I was 59 when I received the Culture Prize of the German Photographic Society. I was 60 when George W. Bush got re-elected President.

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I was 61 when my first major curatorial effort, “Saga: the Journey of Arno Rafael Minkkinen,” made its debut, and I visited the People’s Republic of China for the first time. I was 62 when I published my second book of poetry, Like Father Like Son, shared with my father Earl, and married Anna Lung. I was 64 when Barack Obama got elected President, and my second museum-scale curatorial project, “China: Insights,” premiered. I was 65 when I began publishing this blog, Photocritic International, and my father Earl died. I was 66 when I received the J Dudley Johnston Award from the Royal Photographic Society (UK). I was 68 when Barack Obama got re-elected President. I was 70 when I initiated what became the Robert Capa D-Day Project at this blog, and received the Insight Award from the Society for Photographic Education.

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I was 71 when I received the Society of Professional Journalists SX Award for the Capa D-Day Project. I was 72 when Donald J. Trump got elected President. I was 75 when Donald Trump got impeached for the first time. I was 76 when the Covid pandemic began in the U.S., and  I published my third book of poetry, poetic license / poetic justice, and Joseph R. Biden got elected President. I was 77 when christofascist insurrectionists stormed the Capitol in Washington, DC, and Donald Trump got impeached for the second time. I was 78 when I sold my house on Staten Island and moved to Stone Ridge, NY. I was 79 when ex-President Donald J. Trump got indicted four times on 91 separate charges. I was 80 when I had lunch with my friend Doug Sheer, made this selfie, and scheduled this blog post for publication.

(l-r) Anna Lung, Allan Coleman, Doug Sheer, Nora Licht, Woodstock, NY, 12-20-23

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