Olympus-OM
[Top] [All Lists]

[OM] Review - Debating Modern Photography: The Triumph of Group f/64

Subject: [OM] Review - Debating Modern Photography: The Triumph of Group f/64
From: Moose <olymoose@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 20 Oct 2010 14:58:57 -0700
Our last day in New England coincided with the opening day of this exhibit at 
the Portland Museum of Art. We had time to 
pack, drive to Portland for the museum, and on to Boston for our latish flight.

For anyone interested in the history of photography in the US in the early 
20th. century, I think it's an interesting 
and useful exhibit. I enjoyed it, but it didn't seem to me to be worth any 
great expenditure of effort to get there. 
Fortunately, it nicely filled the middle of an often rainy day.

The intent of the exhibit is fairly narrow. As a result, it does a pretty good 
job of illustrating its focus on the 
transition in the early 20th. century from the pictorialist tradition of the 
latter 19th. century to a more literal, 
realist approach.

Pictorialism is illustrated with a number of prints. To keep the comparison 
meaningful, they are from photographers in 
the same area where Group f/64 developed. I believe they are all contact 
prints, predominantly 8x10", but with several 
smaller.

Group f/64 is represented by a group of prints by its members. I believe they 
are all 8x10 contact prints.

In one of its more interesting aspects, several photographers are represented 
by one or more print(s) from before and 
one or more after they adopted the new style.

What the exhibit is not is a place to see prints of famous images. I don't know 
the pictorialists well, but I think it's 
mostly less than major works. And yes, there are several Ansel Adams prints, 
but again, early, relatively minor work. I 
only recognized one or two. The only obviously famous print is Edward Weston's 
nautilus shell.

What I took away from the exhibit is that good art is an expression of the 
artist's vision, not the technique or school 
to which the artist belongs. Some of the pictorialist prints engaged me, some 
were mildly interesting, some did nothing 
for me. The same was true of the f/64 images.

It seems to me that the dialog (rather than competition) between literalism and 
impressionism, art and craft, focus on 
the result as art object and focus on image as representation of subject, goes 
on today, both here and all around us. 
That's good, in my book.

Critical Art Moose
-- 
_________________________________________________________________
Options: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/listinfo/olympus
Archives: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/private/olympus/
Themed Olympus Photo Exhibition: http://www.tope.nl/

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Sponsored by Tako
Impressum | Datenschutz