Fred W. McDarrah


Frederick William McDarrah was an American staff photographer for The Village Voice and an author. He became famous for documenting the cultural phenomenon known as the Beat Generation from its inception in the 1950s. In his book The Artist's World in Pictures, co-authored with Thomas B. Hess, McDarrah documented the New York art world, the New York School and the world of Abstract expressionism in New York City during the late 1950s.

Biography

Born in Brooklyn of Catholic and Protestant descent, he said his father "did nothing, never worked, a manic depressive who used to sit by the window and just stare out. We used to live on Home Relief. My brother David and I went begging for food."
He bought his first camera at the 1939 World's Fair for 39 cents, but he did not start taking photographs as a vocation until he was a paratrooper in occupied Japan following World War II.
He was one of the first to photograph Bob Dylan.
He photographed people at the time of the Stonewall riots; those pictures were among those gathered in the book Gay Pride, one of over a dozen books including his photographs.

Exhibitions

In 1960, he married Gloria Schoffel; they had two sons, Timothy and Patrick.

Death

He died in his sleep at his home in Greenwich Village a few hours after his 81st birthday.

Books by McDarrah