New York, NY—The esteemed editor of Modern Photography for 20 years, Julia Scully passed away on July 18, 2023, at her Manhattan apartment. She was 94 years old. A tireless and passionate advocate for photographers as well as the fine art of photography, she will be remembered as a “class act.”
Scully was a woman who combined personal style, elegance and grace with an internal toughness. That was honed by her childhood experiences living in an orphanage and later in a roadhouse in a remote area of Alaska.
Julia Scully, Modern Photography Editor
Scully began working at photo magazines in the 1950s. However, it was her decades-long stint at Modern Photography beginning in 1966 that helped establish her as a leading voice in the emerging recognition of photography as a major artform.
Moreover, she initiated the acclaimed Gravure section of the magazine. It featured the images and revealed the creative processes of renowned photographers such as Irving Penn. In addition, Scully created Seeing Pictures, a popular column in which she delved into the work of photographers she admired and reported on exhibitions. Scully also prided herself as discovering the work of little-known photographers who did outstanding work. This included Mike Disfarmer, an obscure photographer from rural Arkansas whose haunting black-and-white studio portraits of everyday people have a strangely familiar feeling.
What’s more, Julia Scully was a masterful writer. Her sensitive, impactful texts in magazine articles and books illuminated the work of the photographers she covered and made it immediately accessible to readers and viewers.
After leaving Modern Photography, Scully wrote Outside Passage: A Memoir of an Alaskan Childhood. It was an acclaimed account of her rough-and-tumble youth. In his New York Times review of the book, Verlyn Klinkenborg wrote: “The props are few, the poses are natural, the mood is one of unforgiving acceptance.” That was Julia Scully, tough-minded, always classy and, above all, compassionate.—Jason Schneider
