The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
‘PROOF’ of process
Cleveland Museum of Art’s ‘Photography in the Era of the Contact Sheet’ gives window into work
Kids, gather around for a tale, a story of a time before digital photography — before DSLRs, smartphones and Instagram. ¶ Back in the old days — we’re not talking about when the dinosaurs roamed the earth but, like, last century — after a roll of film was developed, the negatives were cut into strips and printed by contact.
The 36 exposures of a roll of 35-mm film or the 12 exposures of 2¼-inch film would fit on a sheet of paper. With an enlarger — and we’re borrowing all this technical detail from the Cleveland Museum of Art, by the way — the same group of negatives could make what was called an “enlarged contact,” typically measuring 16 by 20 inches or 20 by 24 inches.
Those contact proofs, aka contact sheets, are starring in a large new exhibition at CMA — “PROOF: Photography in the Era of the Contact Sheet.”
Ultimately, “PROOF” is a window into the photo-editing process, the shooter using a contact sheet to select an image for, say, magazine publication. And it’s an unusual exhibition, says Heidi Strean, chief exhibition, design, and publications officer with the museum.
“Up until now, I think contact sheets have been something that were either not meant to be seen or were seen with some level of humor in a way — like, ‘Look at what didn’t make it to the page,” Strean says during a recent phone interview. “And I think most photography exhibitions really are seeking out the beautiful or perfect final photo.”
About 180 pieces comprise “PROOF,” which, unlike many other shows that have filled the Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation Hall, is free.
The works are from the collection of Mark Schwartz, a member of the museum’s board of trustees before his death in 2014, and his wife, Bettina Katz.
“Mark — kind of in a quirky way — collected these contact sheets,” Strean says. “All of us who work at the museum knew about it. People in the photography world knew about it. He was kind of the only person out there pursuing these (for) a collection.
“In the time since his passing,” she continues, “we’d been thinking about, ‘What kind of an exhibition might we do that would honor Mark but also be kind of serious about photography?’”
CMA enlisted Peter Galassi, former chief curator of photography at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, to serve as guest curator.
“For half a century, contact sheets were so essential to photography that no one gave them a second thought,” Galassi says in a news release from CMA. “Thanks to the passion of Mark Schwartz and Bettina Katz, we can explore them in some depth for the first time — and there are many intriguing surprises.”
Entering “PROOF,” a visitor first learns about contact sheets and then is given a key to understanding the show via three colors of frames that indicate whether a sheet was a working document, not intended for public display (white); an enlargement printed for display (black); or a sheet not assignable to either previous category due to a lack of information, often due to the photographer being deceased (gray).
The exhibition is grouped into a few themed sections related to the type of photographs on sheets — there’s
“Performers Performing,” “Still Film” and “Staged Spontaneity,” to name a few — and it aims to educate about topics such as how photos are chosen and cropped.
Although the photos capture a range of subjects, what jump out are the myriad sheets filled with shots from sessions involving famous folks.
You’ll see Groucho Marx, photographed in 1972 by Richard Avedon.
There’s Igor Stravinsky, sitting at a grand piano in 1946, as shot by Arnold Newman.
Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski embrace in 1969 in a series of photos by David Bailey.
The fingers of Miles Davis, wrapped in various ways around a trumpet, star in a sheet of work by Irving Penn from 1986.
Audrey Hepburn, 1954, Cecil Beaton; Liza Minnelli, 1970, Bert Stern; Kate Moss (nude), 1993, Albert Watson; Burt Reynolds, 1972, Irving Penn — it goes on and on. THE star, though — as she likely was almost anywhere she went — is Marilyn Monroe. The iconic blonde is the focus of many sheets, framed by photographers including Earl Leaf and Philippe Halsman.
“Still photography played a vital role in Marilyn Monroe’s rise to celebrity,” reads a placard that announced the theme of a section of sheets as, simply, “Marilyn.” “The pictures here span nearly her entire career, from May 1950, when she was not yet a star, to July 1962, a month before her death.”
To Strean, these sheets serve as a good entry point for a more general visitor.
“In a way, it’s kind of an invitation to look more closely through people you already find to be familiar,” she says.
Another way to engage with “PROOF” is the many sheets that either indicate which shot ultimately was chosen or that have that photo enlarged next to the sheet — or both. You may find yourself agreeing or, probably less often, disagreeing with the choice. Strean referred to that as the fun of “backseat driving.”
As for younger visitors, the concept behind “PROOF” shouldn’t be too hard to grasp, Strean comparing a contact sheet to the strip of four shots you get when you and a friend make a series of poses in a photo booth.
Plus, we’ve all spent time hunting through our phones’ camera rolls for that magic pic.
“I think that it’s very relatable for younger people because they flip through and say, ‘OK, here are my last 12 — which one am I posting to Instagram?’ ” she says.
“It’s that kind of vibe.” Most importantly, Strean says it illustrates Schwartz’s love of the artform.
“I know that he studied photography when he was an undergrad, and so he always fell in love with the photograph and what photographers did,” she says.
“Throughout his life he made some really important and close friendships with the photographers, and that kind of led into some of his collecting and influenced it, but he also always took pictures. It was definitely a love affair by somebody who loved the sport of photography.”