James Crump is a curator and writer. He is the author or co-author of numerous books and has published widely in the fields of contemporary art and history of photography.

Crump is known internationally for his work with contemporary artists and photographers. Throughout his career he has collaborated with several museums and galleries, including the International Center of Photography

International Center of Photography

The International Center of Photography is a photography museum, school, and research center in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States...

, The Grey Art Gallery and The Drawing Center in New York, Princeton University Art Museum and Die Photographische Sammlung/SK Stiftung Kultur, Cologne, Germany. In addition to publishing the first monographs of Adam Fuss, Vik Muniz, Nadav Kander, and Robert Maxwell, he has worked with such established artists as Doug Aitken

Doug Aitken

-Early life and career:Doug Aitken was born in Redondo Beach, California in 1968. In 1987, he initially studied magazine illustration with Philip Hays at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena before graduating in Fine Arts in 1991. He moved to New York in 1994 where he had his first solo...

, Richard Misrach, Nan Goldin, Ross Bleckner, Lynn Davis, and the estates of Berenice Abbott

Berenice Abbott

Berenice Abbott , born Bernice Abbott, was an American photographer best known for her black-and-white photography of New York City architecture and urban design of the 1930s.-Youth:...

, Robert Mapplethorpe

Robert Mapplethorpe

Robert Mapplethorpe was an American photographer, known for his large-scale, highly stylized black and white portraits, photos of flowers and nude men...

, Carlo Mollino

Carlo Mollino

- Biography :Born in Turin, Piedmont, Carlo Mollino was the son of Eugenio Mollino, an engineer. As he grew up, Carlo Mollino became interested in a variety of topics that were as outrageous as his art, such as design, architecture, the occult, and race cars....

, Willem De Kooning

Willem de Kooning

Willem de Kooning was a Dutch American abstract expressionist artist who was born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands....

, Garry Winogrand

Garry Winogrand

Garry Winogrand was a street photographer known for his portrayal of America in the mid-20th century. John Szarkowski called him the central photographer of his generation....

, and Walker Evans

Walker Evans

Walker Evans was an American photographer best known for his work for the Farm Security Administration documenting the effects of the Great Depression. Much of Evans's work from the FSA period uses the large-format, 8x10-inch camera...

.

Crump’s work has been widely published, most recently in Archives of American Art Journal for the Smithsonian Museum, Art Review, Art in America, Print, and History of Photography. Prior to completing his Ph.D.

Ph.D.

A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...

 in history of art, with Dr. Eugenia Parry as his chief advisor at the University of New Mexico, Crump was Associate Curator of Photography at the Kinsey Institute, Indiana University, where he oversaw a collection of over 50,000 photographic prints and organized the acclaimed exhibition George Platt Lynes: Photographs from the Kinsey Institute. From 1996 to 2003, Crump was founding director and CEO of Arena Editions, a pioneer in the competitive space for illustrated books.
Crump wrote, produced and directed the documentary film, Black White + Gray, featuring the influential and legendary photography collector Sam Wagstaff and artist Robert Mapplethorpe. The film premiered at the 2007 New York-based Tribeca Film Festival and Europe’s Art Basel

Art Basel

Art Basel is an international contemporary art fair held each June in Basel, Switzerland. Similar to the Venice Biennale, it has been called "the Olympics of the art world". Art Basel features nearly 300 leading galleries from North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia and Africa...

; it began airing on the Sundance Channel in March 2008. Black White + Gray was named one of the 100 Best Films of 2008 by The Times, London.

Black White + Gray: A Portrait of Sam Wagstaff and Robert Mapplethorpe

Crump directed the feature-length documentary film Black White + Gray: A Portrait of Sam Wagstaff + Robert Mapplethorpe, which premiered in North America at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival

Tribeca Film Festival

The Tribeca Film Festival is a film festival founded in 2002 by Jane Rosenthal, Robert De Niro and Craig Hatkoff in a response to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the consequent loss of vitality in the TriBeCa neighborhood in Lower Manhattan.The mission of the festival...

 and in Europe at Art Basel. It explores the influence curator Sam Wagstaff

Sam Wagstaff

Samuel Jones Wagstaff Jr. was an American art curator and collector as well as the artistic mentor and benefactor of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe and poet-punk rocker Patti Smith...

, photographer Robert Mapplethorpe and musician/poet Patti Smith

Patti Smith

Patricia Lee "Patti" Smith is an American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist, who became a highly influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses....

had on the 1970s art scene in New York City.

Books (Author)

• (2010) Walker Evans: Decade by Decade. Hatje Cantz. ISBN 978-3775724913.
• (2009) Variety: Photographs by Nan Goldin. Skira Rizzoli. ISBN 978-0847832552.
• (2007) Albert Watson. Phaidon Press Limited. ISBN 978-0714847559.
• (1995) F. Holland Day: Suffering the Ideal. Twin Palms Publishers. ISBN 978-0944092330.
• (1993) George Platt Lynes: Photographs from the Kinsey Institute. Bulfinch Press/Little Brown & Co. ISBN 978-0821219966.

Books (Co-Author)

• (2011) High Heels: Fashion, Femininity and Seduction. Thames & Hudson. ISBN 978-0500515723.
• (2010) Starburst: Color Photography in America 1970–1980. Hatje Cantz. ISBN 978-3775724906.
• (2004) Meridel Rubenstein: Belonging: Los Alamos to Vietnam. St. Ann's Press. ISBN 978-0975330203.
• (1998) When We Were Three: The Travel Albums of George Platt Lynes, Monroe Wheeler and Glenway Wescott. Arena Editions. ISBN 978-0965728041.
• (1994) Harm's Way: Lust & Madness, Murder & Mahem. Twin Palms Publishers. ISBN 978-0944092286.

Select Books (Editor/Publisher)

• (2002) Garry Winogrand: 1964. Arena Editions. ISBN 978-1892041623.
• (2002) Berenice Abbott/Eugène Atget. Arena Editions. ISBN 978-1892041630.
• (2002) Carlo Mollino: Polaroids. Arena Editions. ISBN 978-1892041609.
• (2001) Robert Mapplethorpe: Autoportrait. Arena Editions. ISBN 978-1892041418.
• (2001) Richard Misrach: Golden Gate. Arena Editions. ISBN 978-1892041418.
• (2000) Nadav Kander: Beauty's Nothing. Arena Editions. ISBN 978-1892041401.
• (2000) Richard Misrach: Sky Book. Arena Editions. ISBN 978-1892041289.
• (2000) Walker Evans: The Lost Work. Arena Editions. ISBN 978-1892041296.
• (1999) Bruce Weber: Chop Suey Club. Arena Editions. ISBN 978-1892041197.
• (1999) Peter Beard: Fifty Years of Portraits. Arena Editions. ISBN 978-1892041159.
• (1999) Robert Mapplethorpe: Pictures. Arena Editions. ISBN 978-1892041166.
• (1998) Ross Bleckner: Watercolor. Arena Editions. ISBN 978-0965728096.
• (1998) Lynn Davis: Monument. Arena Editions. ISBN 978-1892041074.
• (1998) Willem de Kooning: Drawing Seeing/Seeing Drawing. Arena Editions. ISBN 978-0965728089
• (1998) Vik Muniz: Seeing is Believing. Arena Editions. ISBN 978-1892041005.
• (1997) Adam Fuss. Arena Editions. ISBN 978-1891024917.

External links

• "A Collector and His Polaroid Passions" by Stephen Holden for The New York Times
• Philip Gefter on Black White + Gray for The New York Times
• Official site for Black White + Gray
• Variety Magazine Review of Black White + Gray
• Jesse Ashlock Interviews James Crump for The Tribeca Film Festival
• Black Book, Nick Haramis, Because the Night: Robert Mapplethorpe Remembered (June 22, 2008)