Hazel Larsen Archer

Hazel Larsen Archer experienced life at BMC as a student, faculty, and as a staff member working in the college office. She studied art, design, and photography, taking classes with Josef Albers, Josef Breitenbach, and Beaumont Newhall among others. Starting in 1949, Hazel was appointed to teach photography, and was at the college for nine years altogether. As many of her students later stated, Hazel had a lasting impact on them with her emphasis on seeing rather than technique. She also invited photographers to teach at Black Mountain College including Harry Callahan, Aaron Siskind, and Arthur Siegel for a special focus on photography in the summer of 1951.  

In 1949 Archer’s photographs were shown in two exhibitions in New York City: Six Women Photographers: Margaret Bourke-White, Helen Levitt, Dorothea Lange, Tana Hoban, Esther Bubley, and Hazel Frieda Larsen at MoMA and a solo show at the Photo League.