John Szarkowski dies at 81

Portrait of Curator, Historian, Critic John Szarkowski by Richard Avedon

Via Conscientious comes the sad news that John Szarkowski has passed away:

John Szarkowski, a curator who almost single-handedly elevated photography’s status in the last half-century to that of a fine art, making his case in seminal writings and landmark exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, died in on Saturday in Pittsfield, Mass. He was 81.

81 is a ripe old age… Here’s to a life well-lived and the legacy he leaves behind.