Mary Randlett

Mary Randlett (May 5, 1924 – January 17, 2019) was an American photographer who created hundreds of photographs in five categories: architecture, nature, Northwest School artists, Northwest writers, and public art. Her work is notable for her documentation of the artists who created the Northwest School, such as Kenneth Callahan, Morris Graves, and Mark Tobey.

Early years Born in 1924 at Seattle's General Hospital, her father Cecil Durand Willis ran a blueprint company while her mother Elizabeth Bayley was in the arts and crafts business. It was thanks to her mother that she developed an interest in Northwest artists from the 1930s and interacted with photographers including George Mantor, Minor White, Imogen Cunningham and Hans Jorgensen.

She attended but did not graduate from Queen Anne High School, before receiving a B.A. degree at Whitman College in 1947. While at Whitman, she was an active photographer, often to be found in the Billings darkroom developing her own films.

Career

"My life is my work; my work is my life." M. Randlett (1996) She has held more than 30 solo exhibitions,