George Tice

George Tice, born in 1938 in Newark, New Jersey, is one of the most prominent fine-art photographers in the United States. His body of work has continually focused on the American landscape. He began photographing at the age of 14, when, on the advice of a teacher, he joined the Carteret Camera Club. A turning point in his training happened two years later, when a professional photographer critiquing a club members’ work praised his picture of an alleyway. Tice briefly studied commercial photography at Newark Vocational and Technical High School. At sixteen he left high school to work as a darkroom assistant for a Newark portrait studio. A year later he enlisted in the U.S. Navy, serving as a photographer's mate. In 1959, a published image he made of an explosion aboard the USS Wasp caught the eye of photographer Edward Steichen, who as director of photography at the Museum of Modern Art, acquired the print for the museum’s collection. Especially well known as a master printer, Tice printed for artists like Edward Steichen as well as printing the portfolios of such artists as Frederick H. Evans and Edward Weston. 

For the next decade, Tice worked as a portrait photographer and helped to establish The Witkin Gallery. His initial success allowed him to concentrate on personal projects. In the 1960s, Tice shifted from smaller camera formats to larger ones, which enabled him to craft carefully detailed prints. When George Tice moved from professional to personal work, he turned his lens to the American urban and rural landscapes, attempting to capture the spirit of the place. Self-taught in the use of the view camera, Tice began photographing the Amish communities of Pennsylvania, a region close to where he grew up. One of his series focused on Lancaster, Pennsylvania, which depicted the daily life of the Amish people and their integration with the landscape around them. Tice frequently returned to this area of Pennsylvania and over a span of eight years he produced his well-known photo-essay on the Amish and Mennonite communities. Tice’s other work features the architectural and industrial motifs that identify American society. In 1969, Tice was included in the opening group show at the Witkin Gallery that set a precedent for other photographic gallery exhibitions.

George Tice is drawn to the vestiges of American culture on the verge of extinction. Although he has photographed throughout the United States, he is best known for his pictures of his native New Jersey, and the impeccable quality of his black-and-white prints. 

George Tice’s first show in New York was at the Underground Gallery in 1965. In 1972, he had a one-man show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Paterson, New Jersey and in 2002, ICP exhibited George Tice: Urban Landscapes, a series he had worked since 1960s. 

Exhibited internationally, George Tice’s work is represented in over one hundred museum collections, including MoMA, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Newark Museum. Tice has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Media Museum (UK), the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, as well as commissions from The Field Museum of Natural History, the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, and the Museum of Modern Art. He has published seventeen books including the following that are available in the gallery: Fields of Peace (1998); George Tice: Selected Photographs 1953-1999 (2001); Lincoln (1984); Hometowns: An American Pilgrimage (1988); Stone Walls, Grey Skies: A Vision of Yorkshire (1993); George Tice: Urban Landscapes (2002); Common Mementos (2005); Paterson II (2006); Ticetown (2007); and Seacoast Maine (2009).