Lida Moser

Lida Moser (August 17, 1920 – August 12, 2014) was an American-born photographer and author, with a career that spanned more than six decades, before retiring in her 90s. She was known for her photojournalism and street photography as a member of both the Photo Leagueand the New York School. Her portfolio includes black and white commercial, portrait and documentary photography, with her work continuing to have an impact.
The Photo League was an early center of American documentary photography in the post war years, with membership including many of the most significant photographers of the 20th century. In a retrospective at the Fraser Gallery in Washington DC, she was described as a pioneer in the field of photojournalism.

"Judy and the Boys (Mimicry)" Photograph by Lida Moser, 1961.

Moser was born in 1920 in New York City. Her career started in 1947 as an assistant in Berenice Abbott's studio. She then earned her first assignment from Vogue in 1949, traveling across Canada. Other magazines featuring her work include Harper's Bazaar, Look and Esquire. She has authored a number of books of her own work and co-authored several photographic technique books. Articles and ongoing columns appeared in the New York Times, New York Sunday Times, Amphoto Guide to Special Effects, Fun in Photography, Career Photography, Women See Men, Women of Vision, and This Was the Photo League, among others.

Moser’s series of "Camera View" articles on photography for The New York Times appeared between 1974 and 1981. Her photography has fetched as much as $4,000 at Christie's and other auctions and continues to be collected and displayed by more than 40 museums worldwide. Moser’s relationship to French photographer Eugène Atget can be seen in photos of Edinburgh, Scotland, as an early influence and that of American photographer Walker Evans.

She died on August 12, 2014 at the age of 93.

Her work has been exhibited in many museums worldwide and is in the permanent collection of

• A portrait of Lida Moser, by painter Alice Neel, currently hangs in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
• Corcoran Gallery, Phillips Collection
• Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec
• Library of Congress, Washington DC
• National Archives, Ottawa
• National Galleries of Scotland
• National Portrait Gallery, London
• National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC

• http://www.nationalgalleries.org/collection/artists-a-z/M/4228/artist_name/Lida%20Moser/National Galleries of Scotland.| National Galleries of Scotland
• http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp08538/lida-moser | National Portrait Gallery London, Lida Moser

• 1949 "Queen's Parade, Edinburgh, Scotland"
• 1950 "Farm Girls, Valley of the Matapedia, Quebec"
• 1961 "Judy and the Boys"
• 1965 "Office Bldg. Lobby, New York,"
• 1968 "Cops, Times Square, New York."
• 1971 "Construction of the Exxon Building, New York'

• O'Sullivan, Michael (March 25, 2005). "Lida Moser At Her Finest". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2012-09-21. 

• Earthman, Come Home (1966)
• A Life For the Stars (Cities in Flight, 2) (Avon SF, G1280) (1968)
• Construction of the Exxon Building, New York (1971)
• Fun in Photography Amphoto U.S.(1974) ISBN 978-0-8174-056-49
• Amphoto Guide to Special Effects Watson-Guptill Pubns(1980) ISBN 978-0-8174-352-40
• 'Photography Contests: How to Enter, How to Win Amphoto U.S.(1981)ISBN 978-0-8174-244-59
• Grants in Photography: How to Get Them (1979)ISBN 978-0-8174-244-59
• Quebec a l'ete 1950 Libre Expression (French Edition) (1982) ISBN 978-2-8911-111-02
• Career Photography: How to Be a Success As a Professional Photographer Prentice Hall Trade (1983)ISBN 978-0-13115-11-30

• "Lida Moser Amazon Bibliography". Amazon.com. October 17, 1976. 

Her 1971 book “Construction of Exxon Building, New York City features a photo of window washers that has been recreated in Lego building blocks at Legoland Florida theme park.

Office Building Lobby, New York, in which Moser’s wild overexposure has reduced organization men to near–stick figures and the lobby to an ill-defined blob, presaging by several years the visual distortions of 2001: A Space Odyssey