Joseph Jachna

American, 1935–2016

Death placeChicago Ridge, Illinois, United States

Birth placeChicago, Illinois, United States

BiographyAmerican, b. 1935. Born in Chicago, Joseph Jachna received a newspaper carrier's scholarship to attend the Institute of Design in 1953, but left after one year to work at the local Eastman Kodak lab. He returned to the school in 1955, studied with Harry Callahan, Aaron Siskind and Frederick Sommer, and earned a bachelor's degree in art education in 1958. Deciding to focus on photography, Jachna worked for three years on his thesis, an in-depth photographic study of water. He received his M.S. in 1961, the same year Aperture showcased his photographs in a special issue of five ID graduate students. After Callahan's departure in 1961, Jachna taught alongside Siskind until 1969, when he joined the faculty of the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle (now the University of Illinois at Chicago). He taught photography there until his retirement in 2001. Jachna has photographed the natural environment of the Midwest and Iceland and has exhibited nationally; among his many awards are fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts (1976) and the Guggenheim Foundation (1980).

-Elizabeth Seigel. Taken by Design, (Art Institute of Chicago), 2002.

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