Jerome Liebling, acclaimed founder of Hampshire College's photography and video school, dies at 87 (with video)
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AMHERST - Jerome Liebling, a man whose stark portrayal of American life over a half-century of photographs and films won him legions of admirers around the globe, died at Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton on Wednesday. He was 87.
One of the first professors at Hampshire College, Liebling founded the school's photography and film program, where he went on to inspire countless students and serve as mentor to some of the country's foremost filmmakers and photographers.
Rachel Liebling, his daughter, described her father as a man who "cared about humanity."
"When he was a kid, he felt his father bought into the myth of American greatness - a place where anyone could achieve anything," Rachel Liebling said, recounting a story her father told. "He said he started taking pictures to show his dad what was going on in the country."
She said he died after a period of failing health.
A Brooklyn native whose father was a waiter, Liebling was a child of the Depression who served in the 82nd Airborne Division in World War II before going on to study at Brooklyn College on the GI Bill.
Before coming to the Pioneer Valley, Liebling founded one of the country's first college-level photography and film programs at the University of Minnesota, where he taught from 1949 to 1969.
It was there that he befriended filmmaker Allen Downs. The pair collaborated on a series of award-winning documentaries over two decades, including "Pow Wow," "The Tree Is Dead" and "The Old Men."
A father of five, Liebling moved to Amherst in 1969 to take a job at the yet-to-open Hampshire College. He later went on to marry fellow Hampshire College professor Rebecca Nordstrom.
"When he came in 1969 there wasn't a college, just a field and a barn," said Jules Chametzky, who has known Liebling since his days at the University of Minnesota some 60 years ago. "That first summer he would show movies on the side of a barn."
Chametzky remembered his friend as a man who always loved to watch a ball game in the evening and came to root for the Red Sox after years of living in New England and the departure of the Dodgers from Brooklyn. The pair had a running conversation about politics, movies and the arts, he said.
"He loved kibitzing and complaining about things," Chametzky said. "He was warm and witty. He took an interest in people, especially children, and their lives."
In the two decades following his arrival at Hampshire, Liebling would literally leave his mark on the school. So many of his students went on to achieve widespread fame that they were eventually termed the "Hampshire Mafia." Among their ranks are documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, cinematographer Buddy Squires, and Emmy and Academy Award-nominated directors Roger Sherman, Kirk Simon, Karen Goodman and Amy Stechler. The school later dedicated the Jerome Liebling Center for Film, Photography and Video building in his honor. He retired from active teaching in 1990.
Yet it was as a photographer that he was best known. Studying under Walter Rosenblum and Paul Strand in the 1940s, Liebling became a member of New York's prestigious Photo League.
"He had an uncanny eye," said Chametzky, who accompanied Liebling on trips to South Florida in the 1970s where he shot photos of old men playing handball. "I could take 50 pictures and I couldn't get the shots he got in three.
Liebling photographs were legendary and ran the gamut of human existence, capturing subjects ranging from farmers working in the fields to city residents in the street to politicians like Alabama Gov. George Wallace and President Kennedy.
"My father always had a great affection for the common person, the working person," said his daughter, Tina Liebling. "He had an uncanny way of standing in front of someone and making his camera disappear. He captured people and their faces. There was an understanding in people that was captured in his photographs."
She cited one photo of a Minnesota coal-yard worker from 1951 as an example.
"The miner in that picture is a heroic figure," Liebling said. "What you see is the heroism of someone who wakes up every day and goes to work to feed his family."
In contrast, Liebling had a scathing view of politicians, his daughter said. He often referred to his "political photos," Tina Liebling said, noting that they often captured politicians in a humorous or unflattering light.
But whether of the rich and famous or of the downtrodden, Liebling's photos won him worldwide acclaim: He received two Guggenheim fellowships, a National Endowment for the Arts Photographic Survey Grant and a fellowship from the Massachusetts Council of the Arts. His photographs are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington.
He also published four books: "The Minnesota Photographs 1949-1969," "The People, Yes," "The Dickinsons of Amherst," and "Shakers: Hands to Work, Hearts to God."
For all that, he'll be missed, Chametzky said.
"He's a friend I'll miss enormously," Chametzky said. "It's a gap in many people's lives. He commanded loyalty and respect and he gave it back."
