Philip Perkis
Philip Perkis (November 12, 1935 – November 21, 2025) was an American photographer and educator. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship and his work is held in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, Carnegie Museum of Art, J. Paul Getty Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Philip Perkis
- Born
- 1935 · Boston.
- Died
- 2025 · Nyack Hospital.
- Nationality
- United States
- Occupation
- photographer · artist
- Honours
- Guggenheim Fellowship
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Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q107702389 · wikipedia · Philip Perkis
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Institutions cited
Getty Union List of Artist Names
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Early life and career
Early life and career
Perkis was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on November 12, 1935. He studied painting at San Francisco Art Institute. He took up photography while in the Air Force in 1957. Later, he made half his living doing commercial assignments and printing for other photographers, and the other half teaching—at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York and at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Around 1992, Perkis made photographs in Mexico on a Guggenheim Fellowship, resulting in the 2019 book Mexico.
Documentary record
Philip Perkis (born 1935) is recorded as a photographer. Philip Perkis was born in 1935.
Personal life and death
Personal life and death
Perkis was married to the artist Cyrilla Mozenter. He died on November 21, 2025, at the age of 90.
Solo exhibitions
Solo exhibitions
• Philip Perkis: Fifty Years of Photographs, Jepson Center for the Arts, Savannah, Georgia, 2010
Group exhibitions
Group exhibitions
• Spirit of Mexico: Photographs by Bravo, Levitt and Perkis, Telfair Academy, Savannah, Georgia, 2006. With work by Perkins, Manuel Alvarez Bravo and Helen Levitt.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Boston.
Birth place
Nyack Hospital.
Death place
Books of photography by Perkis
Books of photography by Perkis
• Warwick Mountain Series: Photographs. Atlanta, GA: Nexus, 1978.. • The Sadness of Men. New York City: Quantuck Lane, 2008.. With a foreword by Alan Klotz, an introduction by Max Kozloff and a transcrpt of an interview between Perkis and John Braverman Levine. • In a Box Upon the Sea = 바다로 떠나는 상자 속에서 = Pada ro ttŏnanŭn sangja sok esŏ. Seoul, South Korea: Anmoc, 2016. Photographs and anecdotes by Perkis. In English and Korean. • Mexico. Seoul, South Korea: Anmoc, 2019.. In English and Korean. • Notan. anmoc Press. 2025. In English and Korean.
Other books by Perkis
Other books by Perkis
• Teaching Photography: Notes Assembled. Rochester, NY: OB; RIT Cary Graphic Arts. 2001; 2005,. • A Single Photography, Twenty Days, Twenty Comments.. With an introduction by Owen Butler. • ar. with Cyrilla Mozenter. AC Books. 2023. ISBN 1939901243. • Octave. with Cyrilla Mozenter. anmoc Press. 2020 Mozenter.
Films
• Just to See – A Mystery: a Film Portrait of Philip Perkis (2015) – 1 h 20 m; documentary directed by Jin Ju Lee
Collections
Collections
Perkis' work is held in the following permanent collections: • Art Institute of Chicago: 8 prints (as of 27 October 2022) • Carnegie Museum of Art: 6 prints (as of 27 October 2022) • J. Paul Getty Museum: 2 prints (as of 27 October 2022) • Metropolitan Museum of Art: 8 prints (as of 27 October 2022) • Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles: 4 prints (as of 27 October 2022) • Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: 5 prints (as of 27 October 2022)
Documents and archives
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- “Philip Perkis”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q107702389: Philip Perkis
General reference · Wikidata
Awards
• 1991: Guggenheim Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation for photography
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Philip Perkis, revision 1364626632 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Philip Perkis. John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.
- 2.Philip Perkis. The Art Institute of Chicago. 1935.
- 3.CMOA Collection. collection.cmoa.org.
- 4.Results for "Philip Perkis" - The Metropolitan Museum of Art. www.metmuseum.org.
- 5.Philip Perkis. www.moca.org.
- 6.Advanced Search Objects – Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. collections.mfa.org.
- 7.Philip Perkis (The J. Paul Getty Museum Collection). The J. Paul Getty Museum Collection.
- 8.Quiet Images; The Photography Of Philip Perkis. Shutterbug. 1 February 2009.
- 9.Andrews, Blake. Book Review: In a Box Upon the Sea.
- 10.photo-eye Bookstore - Mexico by Philip Perkis - photobook. www.photoeye.com.
- 11.Andrews, Blake. B: Fifteen Questions for Philip Perkis. 25 October 2016.
- 12.Philip Perkis Purta Funeral Home
- 13.Dawers, Bill. Man About Town: Major photo retrospective opening at Jepson Center. Savannah Morning News.
- 14.Hersh, Allison. The many faces of Mexico. Savannah Morning News.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Secondary witnessauthority record
General reference
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 18 August 2026.
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