Beaumont's Kitchen

A luxuriantly produced compendium of articles and recipes from the legendary curator, critic, "father of photographic history" and fabled chef, Beaumont Newhall

One evening in 1956 our friend Andrew Wolf burst into our house in Rochester with the startling news that he had bought a weekly suburban paper,The Brighton-Pittsford Post. He explained that he planned to report local news and publish columns on a variety of subjects, such as reviews of the theater, concerts, motion pictures and cooking. "You'll be the food editor," he told me! "What! I can't do that!" "Why not? I know you can write because I like to read it. You can cook well, because I like to eat it."--Beaumont Newhall, Focus: Memoirs of a Life in Photography, 1993.

Often referred to as the "Father of Photographic History," the legendary curator and critic Beaumont Newhall was known by his intimate circle--which included Ansel Adams, Edward Weston and Henri Cartier-Bresson, among many others--as a great chef and a gracious host. This beautifully designed volume, with images printed in deluxe duotones, contains a key selection of articles and recipes culled from "Epicure Corner," Newhall's weekly column for The Brighton-Pittsford Post, which appeared in the Rochester, New York, newspaper from 1956 to 1969. The columns are accompanied by a selection of photographs by the "Newhall Circle"--including Adams, Weston and Cartier-Bresson, among many other twentieth-century photographic luminaries.

Beaumont Newhall (1908-1993) was an influential curator, art historian, writer and photographer. His classic The History of Photography, published by The Museum of Modern Art in 1949, remains one of the most significant books in the field. In 1940, Newhall became the first director of MoMA's Photography Department. He served as Curator of the International Museum of Photography at the George Eastman House from 1948 to 1958, then as its Director from 1958 to 1971. While at the Eastman House, Newhall was responsible for amassing one of the greatest photographic collections in the world.