George Slade
George Slade is a photography historian, curator, consultant, and writer.
As a teenager he began shooting 35mm film on his father’s Pentax SLR and first entered the darkroom in high school. An undergraduate seminar on the photographer in American culture with Alan Trachtenberg, history of photography with Ben Lifson, and a workshop with Garry Winogrand--all of which took place in 1981--launched his lifelong engagement with the medium. A combination of creative experience, curiosity, and scholarship has been his driving force since completing his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1985.
He served as the director of the McKnight Foundation Artist Fellowships for Photographers Program from 1998 to 2008, and as the Artistic Director of the Minnesota Center for Photography from 2003 to 2008. He has served in curatorial and programmatic roles with the Photographic Resource Center at Boston University, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minnesota Museum of American Art (St. Paul), Walker Art Center, and other organizations. In 2015 he founded TC Photo, a non-profit organization driven to foster dialogue around contemporary photography. In 2020 TC Photo is publishing PROXIMITIES, a monographic survey of the teacher, photographic artist, and political activist Linda Brooks.
His photobook reviews and features on individual photographic artists appear regularly in Black & White magazine, photo-eye, and on his blog, re:photographica. He has written essays for monographs by such photographers as Lydia Panas, Ken Rosenthal, R.J. Kern, Susan Burnstine, Tom Arndt, Stuart Rome, and Priya Kambli.
Slade has been a sought-after portfolio reviewer and panelist at real-time and virtual events around the United States since the mid-1990s. He began his career at Aperture as an editorial work scholar in 1987. While there, his first-person encounters with photographers like Bruce Davidson, Nan Goldin, Andres Serrano, and Robert Adams ignited his passion for photography. Connecting with photographers at Magnum Photos and Archive Pictures during subsequent years in New York City, and since 1990 outside of Manhattan, formed a habit of genial and forthright inquiry that continues to motivate him.
George Slade was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1961 and grew up around the Twin Cities, then later in New Haven, Aspen (CO), Rockport (ME), and New York City. After stints in Boston and Traverse City, Michigan, he lives at home in Minneapolis. He has a BA in American Studies from Yale University, and an MA in Organizational Leadership from St. Catherine University in St. Paul.