Photo Exhibit: America in Pictures
George Eastman House Masterpieces by Masters of Photography
Coming soon to a small city near you, The George Eastman Houses' traveling exhibit "Seeing Ourselves" features original photographic prints of and by American Icons.
Seeing Ourselves
For 150 years or so, photographers have been documenting both large and small moments of American life, and they’re all here in Seeing Ourselves. Included in this exhibit are familiar images of the famous and the unknown- immigrants, athletes, gardeners, presidents, movie stars, factory hands, soldiers and kids.
The exhibit is broken into five sections depicting the American experience: American Masterpieces, American Faces, America at War, America the Beautiful, and American Families. Within each of these categories are masterpieces of the photographer’s art that are not only beautiful and compelling; they’ve been a part of the fabric of American life as long as photography itself. Almost as compelling as the images is the fact that these photographs are not merely copies created from the original negatives, but prints created by the photographers themselves.
America at War
The American Civil War was one of the first to be photographed, and its images are some of the most well known. The camera presented the public with a realistic non-romanticized version of warfare, and not surprisingly, images of war are the most powerful and disturbing parts of the exhibit, which includes Timothy O’Sullivan’s Harvest of Death at Gettysburg, and Eddie Adams’ disturbing Vietcong Executed for which Adams earned a Pulitzer Prize.
American Masterpieces
The American Masterpieces includes some of the most famous images ever published, including Edward Weston’s Nautilus, and breathtaking landscapes of Yosemite Valley by Ansel Adams. Also included in this section of the exhibit is the poignant portrait Migrant Mother,taken by Dorothea Lange in 1936. From an artistic standpoint, this photograph is first rate, though it defies the laws of composition. The subject sits squarely in the center, a migrant mother and baby, the mother with head in hand, framed by her ragged children hiding their faces. Although we know that the woman in the photo is probably in her twenties, we can clearly read the lines of care and weariness deeply etched into a face that, at another time in another place, would be considered beautiful.
American Faces
Here are the diverse faces of America, both famous and unknown. A Matthew Brady print of Abraham Lincoln shares space with a photograph of the seated Dobbins Heights North Carolina Town Council by Paul Shamboom; Marilyn Monroe, lashes and bodice at half-mast, and Ada MacGregor and her giant squash by Jim Stone.
Exhibit Locations
The exhibit will be traveling to smaller cities throughout the United States until January of 2010. It is presently at the Zanesville Arts Center in Ohio, but will be moving soon to Jackson, Mississippi. The remaining sites are Hanceville, Al, Lafayette LA, Tulsa, OK, Oshkosh, WI, and Fort Wayne IN. Dates and specific schedules can be found on the George Eastman House website.
