About US-American photographer Dave HEATH (1931-2016)

Philadelphia-born David Martin HEATH was a documentary, humanist and street photographer. He was inspired by Life magazine, most notably the article "Bad Boy's Story: An Unhappy Child Learns to Live at Peace with the World' by Life photographer Ralph CRANE in 1947, and the 1946 book 'Photography is a Language' by John R. Whiting. He was a mostly self-taught photographer. In 1952 he was drafted and served in Korea, taking many photographs there. On his return he attended Philadelphia Museum College, followed by Philadelphia College of Art during the 1954 to 1955 year and then moved to Chicago to study at the Chicago Institute of Design, in 1955 to 1956.
In 1959 he attended The New School for Social Research in New York City, where he settled. In the late 1950s he made street photographs of people in Washington Square Park in New York City, later collected in the book Washington Square (2016). In 1970 he emigrated to Toronto, where Dave HEATH passed away in 2016.

Photo books by and with contributions by Dave HEATH

  • '3' (1952); 'No Dancing in the Streets' (1954); 'Chicago' (1956); 'In Search of Self: A Portfolio' (1956)
    'A Dialogue with Solitude' (1965, with an introduction by Hugh Edwards and a 'letter' by Robert FRANK, reprinted in 2000)
    'Ryerson: A Community of Photographers' (1974)
    'Korea Photographs 1953–1954' (2004)
    'David Heath's Art Show' (2007)
    'Multitude, Solitude: The Photographs of Dave Heath' (2015)
    'Washington Square' (2016)
    ''Dialogues with Solitudes' (2018)
    'One Brief Moment' (2022)

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Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions
  • 1958: 'Seven Arts Coffee Gallery', New York City;
    2015: 'Multitude, Solitude: The Photographs of Dave Heath', Philadelphia Museum of Art;
    2016/17: 'Multitude, Solitude: The Photographs of Dave Heath', Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO
    2018: 'Dave Heath: Dialogues with Solitudes', Le Bal, Paris;
    2019: ''Dave Heath: Dialogues with Solitudes', The Photographers' Gallery, London
Group exhibitions
  • 1959: Museum of Modern Art, New York