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]