William Clift

American photographer (b. 5 January 1944, Boston, Massachusetts); lives and works in Santa Fe, New Mexico. William Clift is widely renowned for his black-and-white landscapes, architectural images, and the pioneering usage of Polaroid instant cameras. Clift co-founded an influential NYC artist-run cooperative, "Association of Heliographers," in the mid-1960s (alongside Walter Chappell, Paul Caponigro, Marie Cosindas and Paul Petricone). He earned numerous accolades over the years, including two Guggenheim Fellowships (1974, 80) and National Endowment For The Arts grants in 1972 and 79. Clift's photographs are in permanent collections at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the Metropolitan Museum Of Art in New York, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the National Gallery Of Canada, and other prestigious museums. Clift began photographing when he was just ten, with a Polaroid and Kodak's "Brownie" Hawkeye cameras; William spent summers doing odd jobs and collecting recyclables to save enough cash to purchase "dark room" equipment. In 1959, William Clift received his first training in photography at Paul Caponigro's workshop. He attended Columbia University in New York for a few semesters in 1962 and had no further formal education. Clift also studied the teachings of renowned Greek-Armenian mystic philosopher George Gurdjieff (c. 1866—1949) with Willem Nyland.