If you’re anything like us, you’ve spent time exploring the Museum of Modern Art’s selection of coffee-table photography books on the second floor. The man behind the photograph selection for most of them, MoMA curator emeritus John Szarkowski, will be stopping by the Y for a conversation with Robert Storr next Tuesday, February 7. A prolific photographer himself, a traveling retrospective of Szarkowski’s works premiered at MoMA this month.

Szarkowski was a crucial figure in 20th-century American photography and, more than anyone else, helped make Diane Arbus and Lee Friedlander into art-world figures. There’s a good introduction to his career over at NPR that also includes a photo gallery and (extensive) audio clips, along with discussion of just why he named his dog ‘Matthew Brady.’

[John Szarkowski: 02/07/06]

We just received the sad news that playwright Wendy Wasserstein passed away Monday after her struggle with cancer. The author of Uncommon Women and Others, The Heidi Chronicles and The Sisters Rosensweig, Wasserstein was a regular here at the 92nd Street Y and spoke twice in 2005 alone. One of her appearances, a conversation with Gene Wilder, is one of the best-selling recordings in our Audible partnership.

For more on Wasserstein’s works, there is plenty of information available at the Literary Encylcopedia. Wasserstein was a true talent and a great friend of the Y. She will be missed.