Fred W. McDarrah
1926 - 2007
Home page: http://www.fredwmcdarrah.com
Archive contact: Gloria S. McDarrah (gloriamcdarrah@earthlink.net) and Patrick McDarrah (mcdarrah@optonline.net)
As the original picture editor of the Village Voice beginning in the late 1950s, Fred W. McDarrah photographed an amazing variety of newsmakers, from avant garde cultural icons and radical activists to mainstream celebrities. He covered politics, art, the rock music scene, dance, performance art, entertainment, and numerous demonstrations in support of the peace movement, gay liberation, and welfare and civil rights.
Born in Brooklyn, McDarrah started taking pictures as a World War II paratrooper in occupied Japan, and graduated from NYU after the war. He amassed an archive that includes city scenes from burnt out Bronx slums to the annual Polar Bear swim in Coney Island, and historic landmarks in his home base of Greenwich Village. He photographed extensively in Europe as well as rural and urban America, and his work has been exhibited in museums and galleries worldwide.
His published works include The Beat Scene, The Artist's World, New York, New York, Museums in New York, Kerouac & Friends, Gay Pride: Photographs from Stonewall to Today, Greenwich Village Guide, Beat Generation: Glory Days in Greenwich Village, and Anarchy, Protest & Rebellion & the Counterculture That Changed America. McDarrah was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in Photography in 1972 and also two Page One awards for first place in news photography from the New York Newspaper Guild.