Why MoMA Is
Giving Its Largest Solo Exhibition Ever to Lee Friedlander
This essay speaks about Friedlander and his exhibition at the
Museum of Modern Art. All of his photographs are of simply ordinary things, but
he takes the photos in a way that we wouldn’t ordinarily look at them. This
essay says that he is able to make the same picture without it looking like the
same picture. This is a very interestign artist with a wonderful way of seeing
things that are normally overlooked.
Travels
with Walker, Robert, and Andy
In this essay, we hear about the traveling photography of Walker
Evans, Robert Frank, and Stephen Shore. The first two photographers began
photographing while traveling, and Stephen Shore was their heir. He was deeply
fascinated in traveling and America in general. In his teen years, Shore was an
assistant to artist Andy Warhol. He was very influenced by his work. Evans,
Frank, and Shore all have very similar styles, and they all capture the essence
of American travel.
Southern
Exposure: Past and Present Through the Lens of William Christenberry
This essay is about William Christenberry, who was an
aspiring photographer who started taking small color photos with a Brownie camera. He became more confident in
his work when he spoke with Walker Evans and he suggested he move back to the
South to pursue his photography career. Christenberry is considered the
beginning of the colored photography era, and when he started it was looked
down on because color film was merely commercial, not for artists. Christenberry’s
work has the essence of history. He takes photos of different areas/buildings
throughout the decades with many different cameras to compare the differences
and show aging.
John
Szarkowski, Curator of Photography, Dies at Eighty-One
John Szarkowski is considered to be the father of photography
as an artform. At age 11, he first started experimenting with photography. Before
he appropriated the act, photography was merely used to document things.
However, John Szarkowski saw it as so much more. He saw potential in it as
being an artform, and he so he found photographers and curated the first
photography art show. This show was entitled New Documents. Since then, he has curated many shows, and he
eventually became director of the department of photography at the Modern.
The
Imagist’s Eye
Henry Wessel has a very personal experience with photography,
he loves the idea of snapping a photo while you’re out and about being
receptive. He is very interested in the idea of time and how sunlight looks in
pictures. Wessel says that he puts his photos away for a year before he decides
which ones are best. He does this because the original thrill and subjective
view on one’s work can be lost and more distant after time, so he likes to wait
so he can have a more objective look on the photos. I found this very
interesting because he’s putting himself in the viewer’s position instead of
the artist’s.
Beauty is
not a Four-letter Word
This essay is about Richard Misrach’s photography. He takes
desert photography, because he has a deep passion for the desert and sustaining
the desert the way that it is. He believes in shedding a harsh light on certain
issues in order to get the idea across, but he also does it in such a beautiful
photographic way.
The Tableau
Inside Your Town Hall
In this essay, we hear about Paul Shambroom and his
photographs that he claims are about power. He photographs various meetings of
people, councils, boards, etc. He doesn’t want to display things in a negative
or positive way, he just wants to display things as real as possible.
Bernd
Becher, Seventy-five, Photographer of German Industrial Landscape, Dies
Bernd Becher and wife Hilla were known for photographing
industrial landscapes from the twentieth century Germany. The documentation
that they did was of a systematic approach, a typology. The photo was repeated
over and over to make the eye dance. Bernd Becher taught photography at the
Dusseldorf Academy.
Keeping It
Real: Photo-Realism
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