Mary Randlett papers, approximately 1950-2010

Mary Randlett has been photographing the people, places, and arts of the Northwest for over half a century. She was born Mary Willis on May 5, 1924, in Seattle, Washington. Her father, Cecil Willis, ran Superior Reprographics, a blueprint company. Mary's mother, Elizabeth Bayley Willis, was a curator and marketer of international folk arts and crafts and was intimately involved in the Northwest art scene. Mark Tobey and Morris Graves were among the artists she befriended, and Mary Randlett would photograph many of her mother's artist friends later in life.

After receiving her first camera at age 10, Randlett made her first set of prints, depicting Orcas Island, in 1937. Her next camera, which she used during high school, was a Kodak 620 folding camera. When her younger sister went to Whitman College, Randlett went along. At Whitman, she used a campus darkroom to process and develop her photographs of friends, professors, and the campus.

After graduating in 1947 with a degree in political science, Randlett returned to Seattle, where she apprenticed herself to fashion photographer Hans Jorgensen, who had been Louise Dahl-Wolfe's assistant. On Jorgensen's advice, Randlett purchased a twin lens Rolleiflex camera and began shooting portraits of families and children. Although Jorgensen gave her tips on processing and developing her photographs, he never influenced her photographic technique. Randlett's portraiture was, however, influenced by the informal approach of George Mantor. In 1950, she married Herbert Randlett, and they had four children: Bob, Mary Ann, Peter, and Suzy.

In 1963, Randlett photographed poet Theodore Roethke at his home in Seattle. He died just two weeks later. Before long, she was shooting portraits of Roethke's students, including future Pulitzer prizewinner Carolyn Kizer. Visual artists -- including Kenneth Callahan, William Cumming, Philip McCracken, Leo Kenney, and countless other well-known names in Northwest art -- soon followed. These photographs are not merely portraits; they also document artists at work, installations of pieces, and gallery shows. Randlett has photographed over five hundred artists and writers.

But she did not limit herself to portraiture: nature photography is of great importance to Randlett, and she has experimented with lighting and techniques throughout her career. She collaborated with the poet Denise Levertov on Lifting the Veil: The Northwest Landscapes of Mary Randlett, which features Levertov poems inspired by Randlett's nature photographs. Architectural photography is another important subset of her body of work: she has documented many homes, commercial buildings, and parks, as well as the architects and landscape architects who designed them.

After Randlett and her husband divorced in 1972, she moved to Virginia, where she assisted a friend with research on Northwest Coast Indians and worked on a commission for the National Register of Historic Places. She returned to the Northwest in 1975 and continued her nature and portrait photography. Randlett has also worked on commissions from various organizations, including the King County Arts Commission and the Northwest Living section of the Seattle Times, and has collaborated on many publications. Her photographs have illustrated books on Northwest artists, the Bloedel Reserve, Seattle's historic preservation movement, and public art in Seattle.

Mary Randlett's work has been included in more than 120 exhibitions, over twenty of which have been solo shows. Her photographs are found in the permanent collections of museums nationwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Seattle Art Museum, the Museum of Natural History, and the Museum of Northwest Art.

Biographical essay by Shannon Lynch.