Joan Liffring-Zug Bourret
LIFFRING, HEUSINKVELD, ZUG, BOURRET, ROEMIG, LUCKE
Posted By: Sarah Fletcher (email)
Date: 10/19/2022 at 09:46:46
Publisher and photographer Joan Liffring-Zug Bourret, known as Iowa's premier documentary photographer of the 20th century, died on Sunday October 16th at the Solon Care Center. She was 93.
Joan, with homes in Iowa City and McGregor, became known nationally early in her career when she photographed herself giving birth to her first son, on April 6, 1951. The photos and accompanying essay—discrete by today’s standards—were rejected for publication by women’s magazines before being accepted by the Des Moines Sunday Register, LOOK magazine, the Minneapolis StarTribune and the U.S. State Department’s Information Agency for publication overseas.
It was fitting compensation for having lost her first job as a photographer and features writer at the Cedar Rapids Gazette when she became pregnant. She was married to the newspaper’s opinion editor, and in those days, she was quietly let go.
Joan’s response was to begin a freelance commercial photography business in Cedar Rapids, photographing many of the city’s prominent families. The photos she took of the women’s clubs and Coe College faculty wives chronicled the cloistered, yet elegant, lives of women in the 1950s and ’60s. Those pictures are now found in numerous private and public collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, and the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art. Her best-known photos were collected in Women 1957-1975.
Joan also worked for The Iowan magazine for thirty years as a freelance assignment writer and photographer, eventually becoming a contributing editor, before resigning in the mid-1980s.
In 1979, Joan founded Penfield Press in Iowa City, later renamed Penfield Books. The business has published more than 110 titles, including ethnic histories, cookbooks, and books of artwork and photographs. Joan wrote many of those titles, including histories and photo collections about the Amana Colonies.
Joan’s autobiography, Pictures and People: A Search for Visual Truth and Social Justice, was awarded the Benjamin Franklin Award by the Independent Book Publishers Association in the category of Autobiographies/Memoirs in 2012.
In 1996, Joan was inducted into the Iowa Women's Hall of Fame. She has donated more than 500,000 negatives of the pictures she took from the 1940s to 2007 to the State Historical Society of Iowa.
Joan was born February 20, 1929, in Iowa City, Iowa, to Esther Lang Liffring and Lawrence Liffring. She attended the University of Iowa for three years, majoring in art and journalism, with an emphasis on photography.
She married Arthur H. Heusinkveld in 1948 and they had two sons, Artie H Heusinkveld and David B. Heusinkveld. The couple later divorced. She married John D. Zug in 1967, and they were married for 28 years until his death in 1995. She married Dwayne Bourret in 1996, who preceded her in death.
Joan is survived by daughters-in-law Carol Roemig-Heusinkveld of Iowa City and Diane Heusinkveld of North Liberty; three grandchildren, Forrest Heusinkveld of Iowa City, Holly Heusinkveld of North Liberty and Ahren Heusinkveld of Denver, Colorado; one great-grandchild, Alden Heusinkveld of North Liberty; and one cousin, Peter Lucke of Alliance, Ohio.
She was preceded in death by sons David B. Heusinkveld and Artie H Heusinkveld; and grandson Jordan Hans Heusinkveld.Per Joan’s wishes, her body has been donated to the University of Iowa Deeded Body Program. A private memorial service will be held at a later date.
Memorial donations may be given in her name to the Amana Heritage Society, P.O. Box 81, Amana, IA 52203; the Iowa State Historical Society, 402 Iowa Avenue, Iowa City, IA 52240; or the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, 410 Third Ave. SE, Cedar Rapids, IA 52401.
Lensing Funeral & Cremation Service
Johnson Obituaries maintained by Cindy Booth Maher.
WebBBS 4.33 Genealogy Modification Package by WebJourneymen