William Dassonville

William E. Dassonville (1879—1957), a superb photographer, was also a man of great influence in Northern California’s artistic community during the early twentieth century. His exquisite work and style are only now beginning to be understood and appreciated, nearly fifty years after his death. Dassonville’s photographs were widely published and won numerous prizes and honors. He counted many prominent artists among his friends and clientele, including John Muir, William Keith, Maynard Dixon, Arnold Genthe, and Alvin Langdon Coburn. His images hung in exhibitions alongside the work of Alfred Stieglitz, Clarence White, Gertrude Kasebier and other renowned artists of the Photo-Secession and the Arts and Crafts movement.