Newly created position based in New York City
Rochester, NY, January 27, 2022—The George Eastman Museum has appointed Phil Taylor as an assistant curator in its Department of Photography. He will be based primarily in New York City. His role will include participating in collection development, curating exhibitions at the Eastman Museum in Rochester, and authoring or contributing to accompanying publications and other scholarly books.
"The Eastman Museum is committed to further developing our relationships and working more closely with artists, collectors, and gallerists," said Bruce Barnes, PhD, Ron and Donna Fielding Director, George Eastman Museum. "Phil Taylor’s presence in New York City will play a critical role in advancing this strategic objective."
"I look forward to my work at the George Eastman Museum with its world-class collection of photographs spanning the invention of the medium through the present," said Phil Taylor. "Exceptional curatorial possibilities abound with a collection that encompasses photographs created for a wide range of purposes. This position offers a unique opportunity to engage both with communities and dialogues in Rochester and photography’s broader global conversation. It is thrilling to be working with the team at the Eastman Museum to illuminate the complexity of photography’s history, and also to grapple with the significance of photographic images today."
"We are enthusiastic that Phil Taylor has joined our team," said Jamie M. Allen, the Stephen B. and Janice G. Ashley Curator and Interim Head of the museum’s Department of Photography. "While he will serve as the department’s specialist in contemporary art photography, he brings a broad knowledge of the history of photography and keen insights and interpretations that will contribute to our acquisition planning and exhibition programming."
Taylor was a curatorial assistant at the Museum of Modern Art from 2017 to November 2021. He assisted senior curator Roxana Marcoci on the coming major retrospective Wolfgang Tillmans: To look without fear and the accompanying publications, including as co-editor of Wolfgang Tillmans: A Reader. The exhibition will be presented at the Museum of Modern Art in 2022 before traveling to the Art Gallery of Ontario and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. During his tenure at MoMA, he curated or co-organized several collection rotations in the museum’s galleries. He also contributed to MoMA publications—including Among Others: Blackness at MoMA and the forthcoming Our Selves: Photographs by Women Artists from Helen Kornblum.
From 2014 to 2017, Taylor was the David E. Finley Fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (CASVA) at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. For the fellowship term, he was based in Paris, doing research throughout Europe, with the final year spent in residence at CASVA.
Taylor is a PhD candidate in the Department of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University and is working to complete his dissertation, Raoul Ubac’s Photographic Surrealism. He graduated with a B.A., summa cum laude, from the University of Southern California and received an M.A. in the Department of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University. Among his published works, Taylor has written extensively for Artforum and artforum.com.
Taylor assumed the new position earlier this month.