Lot 93: PETER SEKAER

PETER SEKAER 1901-1950 STOREFRONT annotation 'S1-12' in pencil on the reverse, circa 1936 7 7/8 by 9 1/2 in. (20 by 24.1 cm.)

Acquired directly from the family of the photographer

The photographic work of Danish-born Peter Sekaer (1901 – 1950) is currently the subject of a book and major retrospective at Atlanta's High Museum of Art. Emigrating to North America as a teenager just after World War I, Sekaer settled in New York in 1920, where he had his own graphic design, window display, and advertising business. Sekaer met Walker Evans and Ben Shahn while studying at the Art Students League, and Shahn urged him to study photography with Berenice Abbott at the New School for Social Research.

In 1935, Walker Evans hired Sekaer to print all of the negatives for his extensive 'African Negro Art' project for the Museum of Modern Art. Later that year, Sekaer and his wife Elizabeth were invited to joinEvans on his second F. S. A. assignment to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. In 1936, the two men traveled and photographed together throughout the South, as Evans worked on behalf of the Resettlement Administration. From 1936 to 1943, Sekaer worked as a photographer for several governmental agencies—the Rural Electrification Administration, the Office of Indian Affairs, the U. S. Housing Authority, and the Institute of Inter-American Affairs—and for the American Red Cross. During this time, his works and essays were published in U. S. Camera and appeared in exhibitions. In the years before his death, Sekaer was a commercial and advertising photographer.