Hay Barn, Contra Costa 1970

Morley Baer
Photography
1980

University Hall, First Floor

An American photographer and teacher, Morley Baer was born in Toledo, Ohio. He was head of the photography department at the San Francisco Art Institute, and known for his photographs of San Francisco's Victorian houses, California buildings, landscape and seascapes.

Morley Baer was born in Toledo, Ohio. After earning his graduate degree in 1939 from the University of Michigan, he viewed a Chicago exhibition of Edward Weston and was inspired to make a pilgrimage to Carmel, California later than same year.
 
Within the decade, Baer had settled in Carmel and working with his 8x10 Ansco view camera, became one of the greatest interpreters of the unique openness, light and form that imbues the California natural scene. He was featured in his first one-person museum show at the De Young Museum in San Francisco in 1959. Baer periodically assisted Edward Weston who eventually become a close personal friend. In 1967, Baer became one of the original founders of Friends of Photography along with Ansel Adams and Brett Weston at Sunset Center in Carmel. Baer was also recognized during his lifetime for his architectural photography and in 1966, he received the distinguished National Award for Photography from the American Institute of Architects. In 1979, he became the very first photographer to ever receive the coveted Prix de Rome from the American Academy.
 
Countless articles and books have featured Baer's photography, including his 1989 lifetime retrospective monograph entitled "Light Years." Baer taught and mentored countless students of photography from his stone house near Garrapata Beach designed in 1965 by William Wurster before his death in 1995.
 
The Stanford University Press has proudly published monographs on this photographer.