Kresge Court, Detroit Institute of Arts, ca. 1964, printed 2012

  • Bill Rauhauser, American, 1918-2017

Pigment ink jet print on paper

  • Image: 11 3/4 × 18 inches (29.8 × 45.7 cm) Sheet: 17 × 22 inches (43.2 × 55.9 cm)

Gift of the artist in memory of Doris Rauhauser

2012.113

According to Detroit native and lifelong photographer Bill Rauhauser, “There are three iron laws of photography: being there, being ready and being lucky.” For more than sixty years this credo informed his work where the unexpected moments of everyday life came together in his photographs taken mostly in Detroit and of its people, streets, carnivals, and fairs, as well as at his beloved Detroit Institute of Arts. He frequently spent time at the DIA enjoying its art collections and photographing individuals in its galleries and other public spaces. Rauhauser worked on in-depth thematic series throughout his career and one in particular focused on women smoking. He captured this stylish young lady enjoying a cigarette in the DIA’s now smoke-free Kresge Court. This photograph is part of Rauhauser’s unprecedented archive of more than 10,000 images made throughout Detroit from the 1950s through the late 1970s. From Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts 89 (2015)

Signed in ink, on recto, lower right: WR

2012-present, gift to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

Bill Rauhauser, Kresge Court, Detroit Institute of Arts, ca. 1964, printed 2012, pigment ink jet print on paper. Detroit Institute of Arts, Gift of the artist in memory of Doris Rauhauser, 2012.113.