Book signing: Saturday, February 4th | 5-6pm + Opening reception from 6-8pm

In collaboration with Casemore Kirkeby, Smith Andersen North is pleased to announce a second opening hosted at Minnesota Street Project to celebrate the new publishing of The Golden Decade Book, published by Steidl and edited by Victoria Whyte Ball & Ken Ball. With so much dedicated time and hard work, the Ball's have comprised a book of 35 artists who sprung from what is known as The Golden Decade of photography; photographers who attended the first class held by renowned photographer Ansel Adams at the California School of Fine Arts (now San Francisco Art Institute) after World War II. The newly published books will be for sale and will be accompanied by a book signing with some of the remaining artists from The Golden Decade period. In conjunction with the book, we will be presenting a selection of photographs from the Golden Decade, which will be on view during the month of February at the Project.

About The Golden Decade
After World War II the California School of Fine Arts (CSFA) in San Francisco hired renowned photographer Ansel Adams to establish one of the first fine art photography departments in the United States. The caliber of teachers and guest instructors assembled there under the new directorship of Douglas McAgy was unmatched, and the school was one of the most avant-garde art schools of its time. On hand were photographers Adams and Minor White, along with Edward Weston, Dorothea Lange, Imogen Cunningham, Lisette Model, Nancy and Beaumont Newhall, and Homer Page. Three former students of Adams and White-William Heick, Ira H. Latour and C. Cameron Macauley, later known as the "Three Musketeers"-began planning a book that would focus on CSFA's photography department, covering the years between 1945 and 1955, the period known as "The Golden Decade." It was a lucky coincidence when Ken Ball and his wife Victoria Whyte Ball (whose father, Don Whyte, had bequeathed them an abundance of negatives and contact prints from his student years at CSFA) joined them. Together this team has embarked on an important journey into photography's past that is embodied in this book.