Edward Grazda

b. 1947 American

In 1972, Grazda began photographing in Latin America (Mexico, Guatemala, Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia). The resulting images are both enigmatic and haunting; they open a portal into the realms of memories, dreams, and the passage of time. In 2008, over 50 vintage prints were featured in an exhibition entitled, Recuerdo: A Memory of Latin America 1972-1979.

In his review of Recuerdo, Vince Aletti states, “[these pictures] may remind viewers of Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Frank, and other keen observers of people in public. Whether his subject is a boy with a homemade cross or a woman breathing fire, Grazda’s work delivers an understated kind of amazement.” (The New Yorker, 3/3/2008)

“You have to spend time in a community, whether it is a town, village, or small city, in order to get a feel for it. After a time, you can get a sense of where the people congregate… These places each had their own distinctive feel about them.” — Edward Grazda, 1980

Grazda is best known for his substantial work in Pakistan and Afghanistan; the subject of two monographs. Grazda repeatedly returned to these areas over twenty years (1980-2000). His incredibly telling images recount a privileged position of documenter and observer during a turbulent time in history.

Grazda’s work has been published in numerous publications like The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, DoubleTake, and Avenda-E-Afghan, an independent Afghan newspaper. His photographs are in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Brooklyn Museum of Art; The New York Public Library; and The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC among others. He has worked on the archives of Walker Evans and Hans Namuth.