David Armstrong (photographer)

David Bradley Armstrong (May 24, 1954 – October 26, 2014) was an American photographer based in New York.

Armstrong first exhibited his work in 1977 and had one-person shows in New York City, Boston, Berlin, Paris, Rome, Zurich, Düsseldorf, Lisbon, Munich, and Amsterdam. His work was included in numerous group museum exhibitions including Visions from America: Photographs from The Whitney Museum of American Art, 1940-2001 in 2003, Emotions and Relations at the Hamburger Kunsthalle in 1998, and the 1995 Whitney Biennial.

Personal life

Armstrong was born in 1954, in Arlington, Massachusetts, one of four sons of Robert and Irma Armstrong. He graduated from the Satya Community School, an alternative high school in Lincoln, Massachusetts, where he met Nan Goldin at the age of 14. David openly identified as gay. On October 26, 2014, at the age of 60, he died in Los Angeles, California due to liver cancer.

Career

Armstrong entered into the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston as a painting major, but soon switched to photography after studying alongside Goldin, with whom he shared an apartment. He attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts and Cooper Union from 1974 to 1978, and he earned a B.F.A from Tufts University in 1988 and Judy Ann Goldman Fine Art in Boston.

During the late 1970s, Armstrong became associated with the "Boston School" of photography, which included artists such as Nan Goldin, Mark Morrisroe and Jack Pierson. Their aesthetic was based on intimate snapshot portraits in saturated color.

Armstrong first received critical attention for his intimate portraits of men, either lovers or friends, in sharp focus. In the nineties, he began to photograph cityscapes and landscapes in soft focus to contrast with the resolution of his portraits. Street lights, electric signs and cars are reduced to a sensual mottled blur, complementing the vividness and tactility of his portraits.

In 1981, Armstrong created a series of black-and-white portraits which he showed at PS1's New York/New Wave exhibition. In 1996, Elisabeth Sussman, curator of photographs at the Whitney Museum, enlisted Armstrong's help in composing Goldin's first retrospective. She gained such respect for Armstrong’s eye, she acquired a few of his pieces for the Whitney permanent collection and he was subsequently featured in the Whitney 1994 biennial.

Armstrong’s work has also appeared in publications such as Vogue Paris, L'Uomo Vogue, Arena Homme +, GQ, Self Service, Another Man and Japanese Vogue and he has worked on the advertising campaigns of companies such as Zegna, René Lezard, Kenneth Cole, Burberry, Puma, and Barbara Bui. He once shot editorials for Wonderland, Vogue Hommes and Purple.

Although his primary subjects include portraits of young boys and men, Armstrong also released a book of land and cityscapes in 2002, entitled All Day, Every Day.

Exhibitions

• A Double Life, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York City, 1993
• Landscapes, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York City, 1995
• The Silver Cord, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York City, 1997
• Emotions and Relations, Hamburger Kunsthalle Hamburg, Germany, 1998
• Gallerie Barbara Farber/Rob Jurka Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 1998
• Ugo Ferranti Rome, Italy, 1998
• New Photographs, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York City, 1999
• Scalo New York, New York City, 1999
• Galerie Fricke, Berlin, 1999
• Judy Goldman Fine Art, Boston, 1999
• Bang Street Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts, 1999
• Joao Graça, Lisbon, 2000
• Open Studio, Toronto, 2000
• Photography in Boston: 1955 – 1985, DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, Massachusetts, 2000 (catalogue ISBN 0262122294)
• New Editions, Marlborough Graphics, New York City, 2000
• Faces, Bang Street Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts, 2000
• Cityscapes and Landscapes, Galerie M+R Fricke, Düsseldorf, 2001
• Bang Street Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts, 2001
• CITY: Prints and Photographs from the 30s through Today, Brooke Alexander, New York City, 2001
• Places and People, L.A. Galerie Lothar Albrecht, Frankfurt, 2001
• Building Dwelling Thinking, Judy Ann Goldman Fine Art, Boston, 2001
• Tenth Anniversary Exhibition, 100 Drawings and Photographs, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York City, 2001 (catalogue ISBN 1-880146-34-7)
• City Light, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York City, 2002
• David Armstrong: All Day Every Day, Scalo Galerie, Zurich, Switzerland, 2002
• Visions from America. Photographs from the Whitney Museum of American Art, 1940-2001, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, 2002 (catalogue ISBN 978-3791327877)
• Recent Acquisitions, Dallas Museum of Art, Texas, 2002
• David Armstrong: portraits and other works, early and recent, Galerie M + R Fricke, Düsseldorf, 2003
• Flesh Tones: 100 Years of the Nude, Robert Mann Gallery, New York City, 2003
• Your Picture on My Wall, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York City, 2004
• Likeness: Portraits of Artists by Other Artists, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, 2004
• Indigestible Correctness II, Kenny Schachter Gallery, New York City, 2004
• Model Boy, Judy Ann Goldman Fine Art, Boston, 2006
• Some Tribes, Christophe Guye Galerie, Zurich, Switzerland, 2006
• True Romance - Allegorien der Liebe von der Renaissance bis heute, Kunsthalle Wien (Halle 1, Halle 2 im MQ), Vienna, 2007

Publications

Publications by Armstrong

• Polariods. 2013. ISBN 1907071415.
• David Armstrong: All Day Every Day. 2002. ISBN 390824756X.
• The Silver Cord. 1997. ISBN 3931141489.

Publications with others

• Night and Day. By Armstrong, Rene Richard and Jack Pierson. 2012 ISBN 1907071288.
• David Armstrong: 615 Jefferson Avenue. By Armstrong, Nick Vogelson, Anton Aparin and Boyd Holbrook. 2011. ISBN 8862081782.
• A Double Life. By Armstrong and Nan Goldin. 1994 ISBN 1881616215.
• Faces of Hope:AIDS and Addiction in America.By Armstrong and Rory Kennedy. 2001ISBN 978-0923183271.