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Marte Previti 1911 - 2011Marte Previti was born in Hell's Kitchen on the West Side of Manhattan in 1911 of poor, immigrant Sicilian parents. After graduating from high school at 15, he worked for Allied Chemical Corporation as a laboratory assistant at ten dollars weekly which helped to sustain him while he attended college at night. In 1932 he graduated from the Cooper Union School of Science and Art as a Chemical Engineer in the depth of the Great Depression, when the hope of being employed as an engineer was only a dream. The first opportunity for advancement came in 1934 when he was assigned to his firm's office in Buenos Aires, Argentina to head their technical staff.
Embracing the hobby of photography was inevitable as his travels around South America exposed his inquisitive eye to a wealth of fascinating subjects to capture on film. He purchased a Zeiss Super Ikonta B with a Tessar f2.8 lens which was modern for that time. Self taught, and with no training in art, he instinctively produced images which earned recognition for merging beauty with originality and spontaneity. He entered his work in contests, receiving several awards. He was published in major newspapers in Buenos Aires and Santiago, Chile. |
Previti was always an opportunistic photographer and rarely pursued a specific theme. His preference was for pictorial scenes with dramatic cloud formations as backdrops for his compositions, which became a signature feature of his work, leading to a favorable comparison to Ansel Adams by an enthusiastic curator. He was, however, always on the alert for the 'decisive moment', to quote Cartier-Bresson, and some of his most memorable images were the result of split second timing, or the anticipation of an impending situation which would produce a great shot. The idea of converting this happy amateur activity into a profession was never considered. Previti is an 'old fashioned' photographer and never tries to modify or improve on the truth as seen by his lens.
After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, precipitating our declaration of war on the Axis, Previti was recruited by the American Embassy in Santiago as a Senior Economic Analyst where he controlled the importation of raw materials by the Chilean chemical industry from the United States, which it could no longer obtain from Europe.
Wanting to participate more actively in the conflict, Previti resigned and returned to New York to volunteer for military service. He was trained as a Special Agent of the US Army Counter Intelligence Corps and sent to Germany where he joined the ALSOS Mission, the famous scientific intelligence task force that was the European arm of the Manhattan Project, and whose goal it was to discover what progress Germany was making toward the production of an atomic weapon. Advancing through Germany just behind our front line troops, members of ALSOS captured Hider's chief physicists engaged in this program, most importantly Werner Heisenberg, and their secret laboratories, including their stockpiles of uranium and heavy water. For his contributions to the success of that project, Previti was awarded the British Empire Medal by the King of England.
After the war Previti did not return to South America. He founded a chemical exporting firm in New York and engaged in international trade in the specialized field of organic dyestuffs. In 1949 he married Elisabeth Carron, a prominent operatic soprano whom he had met on a blind date; and whose performance record includes co-starring with Maria Callas, Richard Tucker and Birgit Nielson, among others.. They raised two daughters who are now successful in their careers of architecture and interior design. Meanwhile, Previti's collection of images taken from 1934 and 1943 was stored away to gather dust for the next fifty years.
As he approached his 85th birthday, Previti realized that unless he resurrected his vintage South American prints and showed them to the public, they might well be lost or destroyed after he was gone. He mounted a retrospective exhibition at the National Arts Club titled "Memories of South America, 1934-1943". The success of the show led to an invitation in 1977 by the Instituto Chileno Norteamericano in Santiago, Chile where many of the images had been taken, followed by new invitations in 1998 in Santiago and Valparaiso.
To Previti's amusement, reviewers focused not on the subject matter of the photographs but on his World War II experiences and elevated him to the status of a notorious spy and globetrotter who just coincidentally was a photographer. A full page interview in the Sunday Society section of EI Mercurio with a large color photograph, fortunately showing him holding his trusty vintage Zeiss, and the caption, 'MARTE, THE SPY' in one inch letters is his favorite trophy of that exhibition campaign.
His most ambitious project was the exhibition of more than 70 images taken around the globe from 1934 to 1999, and tided "Around This Planet", in the Fifth Avenue Lobby Galleries of the Empire State Building from March to May, 2000. This was followed by a retrospective of Latin-American photographs at the Art Center of Queens College.
In May 2000 Previti was invited by the Foto Club Buenos Aires to participate in its annual Jornadas Argentinas, a weeklong event, with an exhibition of images he had taken as an amateur over sixty five years, and the presentation of two lectures in Spanish. In gratitude the Foto Club declared him an Honorary Member. It also requested a print of his signature photograph of searchlights crossing the night sky of Buenos Aires on its Independence Day, July 9, 1936 for its permanent collection.
After 12 exhibitions here and abroad in the past five years, Previti has declared a moratorium on shows and is concentrating on experimenting with still life photography, an area new to him, and in finishing his book, "Around This Planet, A Photographic Memoir, 1934-2000".
Marte Previti died on May 7, 2011, after a long, productive and very interesting life. His wife, Elisabeth Carron Previti died on December 1, 2016. He is survived by his two daughters, Marcia Previti and Lisa Rose, and a grandson, Alexander Previti Gumpel.
After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, precipitating our declaration of war on the Axis, Previti was recruited by the American Embassy in Santiago as a Senior Economic Analyst where he controlled the importation of raw materials by the Chilean chemical industry from the United States, which it could no longer obtain from Europe.
Wanting to participate more actively in the conflict, Previti resigned and returned to New York to volunteer for military service. He was trained as a Special Agent of the US Army Counter Intelligence Corps and sent to Germany where he joined the ALSOS Mission, the famous scientific intelligence task force that was the European arm of the Manhattan Project, and whose goal it was to discover what progress Germany was making toward the production of an atomic weapon. Advancing through Germany just behind our front line troops, members of ALSOS captured Hider's chief physicists engaged in this program, most importantly Werner Heisenberg, and their secret laboratories, including their stockpiles of uranium and heavy water. For his contributions to the success of that project, Previti was awarded the British Empire Medal by the King of England.
After the war Previti did not return to South America. He founded a chemical exporting firm in New York and engaged in international trade in the specialized field of organic dyestuffs. In 1949 he married Elisabeth Carron, a prominent operatic soprano whom he had met on a blind date; and whose performance record includes co-starring with Maria Callas, Richard Tucker and Birgit Nielson, among others.. They raised two daughters who are now successful in their careers of architecture and interior design. Meanwhile, Previti's collection of images taken from 1934 and 1943 was stored away to gather dust for the next fifty years.
As he approached his 85th birthday, Previti realized that unless he resurrected his vintage South American prints and showed them to the public, they might well be lost or destroyed after he was gone. He mounted a retrospective exhibition at the National Arts Club titled "Memories of South America, 1934-1943". The success of the show led to an invitation in 1977 by the Instituto Chileno Norteamericano in Santiago, Chile where many of the images had been taken, followed by new invitations in 1998 in Santiago and Valparaiso.
To Previti's amusement, reviewers focused not on the subject matter of the photographs but on his World War II experiences and elevated him to the status of a notorious spy and globetrotter who just coincidentally was a photographer. A full page interview in the Sunday Society section of EI Mercurio with a large color photograph, fortunately showing him holding his trusty vintage Zeiss, and the caption, 'MARTE, THE SPY' in one inch letters is his favorite trophy of that exhibition campaign.
His most ambitious project was the exhibition of more than 70 images taken around the globe from 1934 to 1999, and tided "Around This Planet", in the Fifth Avenue Lobby Galleries of the Empire State Building from March to May, 2000. This was followed by a retrospective of Latin-American photographs at the Art Center of Queens College.
In May 2000 Previti was invited by the Foto Club Buenos Aires to participate in its annual Jornadas Argentinas, a weeklong event, with an exhibition of images he had taken as an amateur over sixty five years, and the presentation of two lectures in Spanish. In gratitude the Foto Club declared him an Honorary Member. It also requested a print of his signature photograph of searchlights crossing the night sky of Buenos Aires on its Independence Day, July 9, 1936 for its permanent collection.
After 12 exhibitions here and abroad in the past five years, Previti has declared a moratorium on shows and is concentrating on experimenting with still life photography, an area new to him, and in finishing his book, "Around This Planet, A Photographic Memoir, 1934-2000".
Marte Previti died on May 7, 2011, after a long, productive and very interesting life. His wife, Elisabeth Carron Previti died on December 1, 2016. He is survived by his two daughters, Marcia Previti and Lisa Rose, and a grandson, Alexander Previti Gumpel.