George A. Tice American, 1938- Self-taught in photography, George Andrew Tice came to national recognition in 1959 when Edward Steichen, then director of the department of photography at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, bought Tice's image of an explosion aboard the U.S.S. Wasp for the museum's collection. The exchange began a mentor/protégé relationship between the two men that would last for several years. Although assigning a particular style or theme to Tice's straight black-and-white photographs is difficult, a continued interest in the vernacular landscape and history of small-town and city life is evident. His study of Paterson, New Jersey, reveals his fascination with urban icons, often printed in low-key tonal ranges to evoke mood. Projects addressing these themes have included Urban Landscapes: A New Jersey Portrait (1975), Seacoast Maine: People and Places (1973), Lincoln (1984), Hometowns, An American Pilgrimage (1988), and Stone Walls, Grey Skies: A Vision of Yorkshire (1991). Tice also finds inspiration in individuals who retain strong ties to their communities. His portraits of the Amish in Fields of Peace: A Pennsylvania-German Album (1970) and his extended essay on Artie Van Blarcum (1977) reflect these concerns. In 1994 Tice began work on Ticetown, a project that has involved tracing his Dutch ancestors, who arrived in New York in 1663 and then migrated to New Jersey. Tice (born in Newark, New Jersey) studied commercial photography at Newark Vocational and Technical High School (1955). He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts (1973) and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (1973), and a joint fellowship from England's National Museum of Photography, Film, and Television/Bradford and Ilkley Community College (1990-91). Tice lives in Iselin, New Jersey. A.W.