Overview

Jack Mitchell

Jack Mitchell, 1961

Self portrait

https://www.jackmitchell.com/

Jack Mitchell (1925-2013), an American photographer whose prolific career spanned thirty years, was best known for his photographs of celebrities including dancers, artists, and other performers. His photos appeared on numerous dance magazine covers and vast audiences admired them. In 1960, he was named the official photographer for the American Ballet Theatre, a position that he held until 1970. Mitchell also became closely associated with several other dance companies, most notably, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, founded in New York in 1958 by Alvin Ailey to “express black cultural heritage and enrich American dance”. 

Mitchell was noted for his uncanny ability to produce portraits that communicate the emotion and personality of his subjects, many of whom, including dancer and choreographer Judith Jamison, credit Mitchell with memorializing through his photographs the youth and strength of young dancers who lost their lives to AIDS during the crisis of the 1980s. With his camera and skilled eye, Mitchell captured forever the ephemeral moment of dance and of life.

Fellow artist Lowell Nesbitt gave this collection of 25 photographs to Washington and Lee University. Nesbitt’s connection to Mitchell’s work is evident; Mitchell photographed Nesbitt in 1982, and Nesbitt referenced Mitchell’s photographs in several of his canvases of human bodies. Nesbitt offered this collection to W&L as a gift in honor of his patron, Bernice Weinstein, and her husband Dr. Jacob Joseph Weinstein, who represented him in their D.C. gallery “Jacob’s Ladder.” The Weinsteins were major art donors to the university and other institutions; included among their gifts to W&L are several of Nesbitt’s own pieces. 

Curated by Liza Aldridge ’21, 2018 Summer Intern, University Collections of Art & History (now Museums at W&L)