John Coplans
English photographer, teacher, and curator, 1920-2003, active in the United States
Mummer's Parade
1982
Gelatin silver print
26 x 32 1/2 inches (66.04 x 81.407 centimeters)
Gift of César Jardón, 1983.
1983.049.005

John Coplans was an abstract artist in England, then an influential member of the American art world for twenty years as a writer, editor, curator and museum director. In 1980, inspired by intense study of the work of the photojournalist Weegee, he became a photographer himself. Coplans made large-scale images of human subjects. He usually worked in a studio with a plain backdrop, but this photograph of a mummer was made at the famous New Year's Day parade in Philadelphia.