If you’ve read Geoff Johnson’s feature on Beatrice Tonnesen in the current (March) issue of Chicago Magazine, or listened to his WBEZ interview, you know that we have learned a great deal about Tonnesen’s work from the descendants of Tonnesen’s models. In most cases, it seems, a great-aunt or a grandmother, or maybe a dimly-remembered cousin, left behind a stack of artfully composed black and white photos, all featuring that relative in his or her youth or young adulthood. Tonnesen seems to have been in the habit of giving her models numerous photographic mementoes of their work. Once a photo is located and can be verified as Tonnesen’s work, either through its contents or written notations, it can provide a treasure trove of clues to help us identify or date the other photos and prints in our collections, and even learn more about how the photos were created. Continue reading
Monthly Archives: February 2010
WBEZ Interview with Chicago Mag about BT
Today on the WBEZ Chicago Public Radio program Eight Forty-Eight, director and resident photographer Jason Marck talked with journalist Geoffrey Johnson about Beatrice Tonnesen’s life. Johnson tells the Beatrice Tonnesen story in the March issue of Chicago magazine (soon on the newsstand and later on the web). A podcast is available.