Photography and the American Culture

Icons of American Photography presents a remarkable summary of the evolving America. From the earliest days of photography, visitors will see a proliferation of portraiture, intimately personal and honest incomposition. Works such as Artist with His Palette and Brushes (c. 1850s) by an unidentified 19th century photographer and Prosper M. Wetmore (1857) by Civil War-era photographer Mathew Brady (1823-1896)celebrate this tradition, which continues throughout the century with works such as Paul Robeson as “The Emperor Jones” (1933) by Edward Steichen (1879-1973) and Coney Island Bather (1939-1941) by Lisette
Model (1901-1983).

During the late 19th century, the U.S. Congress commissioned photographers to cover the American West. Photographs by Timothy O’Sullivan (1840-1882) and William Henry Jackson (1843-1942) are the most celebrated from among this era. This exhibition includes O’Sullivan’s East Humbolt Mountains, Utah (1868) and Jackson’s Mystic Lake, M.T. (1872).Icons also includes additional landscape photography documenting America’s enchantment with the Western frontier: Bridal Veil, Yosemite (c. 1856-66) by Carleton Watkins (1829-1916); Looking South Into the Grand Canyon, Colorado River, Sheavwitz (1872) by William H. Bell (1830-1910); and Hell’s Half Acre, Prismatic Springs (c. late 1880s) by Frank Jay Haynes (1853-1921).

In Icons, we also see the juxtaposition of rural America, evidenced in works such as Dust Storm, Cimarron County (1936) by Arthur Rothenstein (1915-1985) and Resident, Conway, Arkansas (1938) by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), and a bustling, urban America, seen in works such as New York, the Elevated and Me (1936) by Ilse Bing (1899-1998); From My Window at the Shelton, West (1932) by Alfred Stieglitz (1864-19460; and New Orleans, Canal Street (1955) by Robert Frank (b. 1924). Similarly, Icons captures the emergence of industrial American in works such as Lathe, Akeley Shop, New York (1923) by Paul Strand (1890-1976) and San Francisco Waterfront, The General Strike (1933) by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965). The exhibition also shares glimpses into the commercialization of America, with photographs such as Window Display, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (1935) by Evans Walker (1903-1975) and Always Camels, 1922 (1922) by Ralph Steiner (1899-1986).

Besides this documentary approach, the show also includes landmark photographs illustrating other major stylistic trends. The soft-focus, atmospheric qualities of pictorialism are apparent in Julia Hall McCune (c. 1897) by Clarence H. White (1871-1925) and Rodin-The Thinker (1902) by Edward Steichen. These dream-like works are contrasted by the sharply focused and distinctly printed modernist compositions emphasizing geometric forms in Black and White Lillies III (c. 1928) by Imogen Cunningham (1883-1976) and in Dunes, Oceana (1936) by Edward Weston (1886-1958.) Chicago 22 (1949) by Aaron Siskind (1903-1991) and Alley, Chicago (1948) by Harry Callahan (1912-1999) illustrate how ordinary observable reality was transformed into abstract compositions.