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M i r r o r s a nd W i nd o w s  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

A m e ric a n Pho tography since 1960

°  ^

  J

  PRESS PREVIEW

J u l y   2 6 1978

Ju ly 28-O ct obe r  2 1978  1   11 a.m . t o 4  p . m .

MAJOR EXHIBITION

  O F

 RECENT AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHY

  A T

 MOMA

The changes  in  American photog raphy during  t h e  past  20 years have been

profound,

  a n d g o t o t h e

 root issue

 o f t h e

 photo graph er's definition

  o f his

function, notes John Szark owski, head

  o f t h e

 Department

  o f

 Photography

 a t

The Museum

  o f

 Modern

  A r t a n d

 director

  o f t h e

 exhibition MIRRO RS

  A N D

 W I N D O W S :

AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHY SINCE 1960.

  O n

 view

  in th e

 first-floo r galleries

 o f

the Museum from July

  28

 through October

  2,

 MIRRORS

  A N D

 WINDOWS examines

 t h e

significant changes  in th e  photographer's place  in  Ame rican life  a n d  proposes

a n e w  critical frame work   f o r t h e  ap preciation  o f  contemporary photograp hy.

Rather than being  an  encyclopedic survey  o f t h e  achievements  o f  indi

vidual photographers,

  t h e

 exhibition shows pictures that exemplify

  t h e

 range

of concerns

  o f

 recent photography. Among those whose work

  c a n b e

 seen

 in

MIRRORS

  A N D

 WINDOWS

  a r e

 Diane Ar bus , Paul Capon igro, Mark Cohen , Judy Date r,

Bruce Davidson, William Eggleston, Elliott Erwitt,

 Le e

 Friedland er, Ernst

Haas, Robert Heinecken,

  Le s

 Krims,

 R a y

 Metzker, Joel Meyerowitz,

 T o d

 Papa-

george, Robert Rauschenberg,  Ed  Ruscha, Stephen Shore, George Tice, Jerry

Uelsmann,   a n d  Garry Winogrand.

MIRRORS  A N D  WIND OWS, m ade possible  by  grants from Philip Morr is Incor

porated  a n d t h e  National Endowmen t  f o r t h e  A r t s , is  accompa nied  by a  major

publication  by  John Sza rko wsk i.* Following  it s N e w  York showing,  t h e e x

hibition will travel  t o  Clevelan d, Minneapo lis, Louisville, S a n  Francisco,

the University  o f  Ill inois  a t  Champaign, Richmond,   a n d  Milwauke e.

*Mirrors   a n d  Windows: American Photography since 1960. B y  John Szarko wski.

152 pages; 16  color plates;  1 20 black  a n d  white duotone illustrat ions.

Cloth bound $22.5 0; Paper bound $12.50. Published  b y T h e  Museum  o f  Modern A r t ,

New York.

(more)

T h e M u s e u m O f M o d e m A r t

  ll

 est

 53 Street,

 New York, N.Y 10019 Cable: Modernart

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NO. 56

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In John Szarkowski's view, the dominant motif of American photography

during the past 20 yea rs has been a mov eme nt from public to private co nce rns.

Unlike the genera tion of the 1930s and 40s, Szarkowski sug ges ts, the gener

ation that came to artistic maturity and public recognition after 1960 is

charac terized by a pursuit of highly personal visions of the world rather

than by any attempt to offer a compreh ensive program for social or aest hetic

progress.

MIRRORS AND WINDOWS has been organized around Szarkowski's thesis that

such personal v isions take one of two for ms. In metapho rical ter ms , the

photograph is seen either as a   mir ror a   romantic express ion of the pho to

grapher's sensibility as it projects itself on the things and sights of this

world; or as a   w indow th rough  which the exter ior world is explore d in all

its presence and reality.

The 1950s marke d the historical water shed in phot ogra phy' s turning away

from public to private con cerns f or a whol e complex o f econ omic, social and

technological facto rs including the decline of the great picture mag azines

(Life, Look ) and the diminished commerc ial and, by exte nsion, social opp or

tunities available to the photographic profes sional. Two major influences

in the realignmen t of phot ogra phy's relation to the world wer e Minor W hite's

maga zine Apert ure , which first appeared in 195 2, and Robert Frank's 1959

book The Americans, a personal vision of the Eisenhower e ra. Between White,

the prototypical mirror, and Fran k, the prototypical window, there was

defined, in Szarkowsk i's wor ks, a model for the fundamentally divergent

conc epts of phot ogra phy' s function, a model still useful in the critical

anal ysis of the continued evolu tion of American photog raphy during the past

two decades.

. Among the leading practioners of the mirror approa ch are Paul Capo ni-

gro; Jerry N. Uelsmann, whose surreal, technically stunning montages have

been widely influen tial; Robert Heinecken; and painter Robert Rauschen berg,

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who easily and elegantly incorporates photos and photographic processes into

his work in other me diums.

Foremost among the windows group is Garry Winogran d, wh o, Szarkowski

f e e l s ,

  may well be the central phot ograph er of his gene ration. No other

work of the period has insisted so clearly and uncompromisingly on exploring

the uniquely prej udicial (intrinsic) qual ities of phot ogra phic des cription.

Others who have set out to explore the world through the window of photography

are Lee Friedlan der, with his playful referen ces to phot ographer s of the past,

Diane Ar bu s, Ray Metz ker, and Ed Rusch a. And no survey of photogra phy of

the past 20 year s would be complete without a look at color photogra phy in

the work of William Eggle ston, Stephen Sho re, and Joel Meye row itz.

Szarkowski, however, is quick to point out that the mirrors-and-windows

dichotomy is not a hard and fast on e. It must be empha sized that the   dis

tinction propos ed here ...is not intended as a met hod of dividing recent ph oto

graphy into two discrete and unrelated b odies. On the contr ary, the model

suggested here is that of a continuous axis No photog rapher 's work could

embody with perfect purity either of the two divergent motives; it is the

nature of his problem to find a personally satisfactory resolution of the

contesting claims of recalcitrant facts and the will to form.

What unites the photographers included in the exhibition is their com

mon pursuit of beauty : that formal integrity that pays homage to the dream

of meaningful life. Both approaches ar e, in fac t, part of a single if com

plex tradition. The re has been an internal d eba te within that tradition al

most from its beginning. A half-ce ntury ago , photograp hy as self-expression

was exempl ified by Alfred Stieglitz, and the realist view by Eugene Atg et.

As Szarkowski no tes , in either case , what artist could want a more distin

guished sponsor? The distance between them is to be measure d not in terms

of the relative force or originality of their work, but in terms of their

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NO. 56 Page 4

conce ptions of what a photo graph is: is it a mirr or , reflecting a portrait

of the artist who made it, or a window, through which one might better know

the world?

June 1978

Pho tog rap hs, transp aranc ies and additional informat ion ava ilabl e from Luisa

Kreisberg, Directo r, or Bruce Wolme r, Assistan t, Department of Public Infor

mation, The Museum of Modern A rt, 11 West 53 Stre et, New York, New York 10019

Telep hone : (212) 956- 2648; 7295.