Preston Holder

Who was Preston Holder?

Preston Holder was an American archaeologist and photographer.

In 1930 he entered the University of California, Berkeley, to study anthropology. While there he met photographer Willard Van Dyke after writing an assignment about his photographs. Van Dyke introduced him to Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Imogen Cunningham and other photographers around the San Francisco area, and he soon was photographing in a style similar to theirs. In 1932 Holder was present at a gathering at Van Dyke's house in Berkeley in which this group discussed their intention to unite in promotion of their artistic vision, They were searching for a name for their small group, and Holder suggested "US 256", which was then the commonly used Uniform System designation for a very small aperture stop on a camera lens. Adams thought the name would be confusing to the public, and he suggested "f/64", which was a corresponding aperture setting for the focal system that was gaining popularity. From this discussion they formed the now famous Group f/64. Later that year Holder participated in their first Group f/64 show at the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, showing four prints.