Photographers in ‘Fresh Perspective’ adopted modernism
There was an era of great innovation and experimentation that came to influence contemporary photographers like Carrie Mae Weems. It was the Modern Age.
Inspired by developments in Modernist painting and sculpture, such as the work of Matisse, Kandinsky, Duchamp and Picasso, photographers, too, around the turn of the 20th century, began to champion abstract and conceptual thinking in their work.
Twenty-five classic photographs by several major photographers of the Modernist era are featured in “Fresh Perspective: Modernism in Photography, 1920-50” at the Allentown Art Museum.
This exhibit was created from the museum collection to complement the winter exhibition “Carrie Mae Weems: Strategies of Engagement,” a 30-year retrospective.
“Fresh Perspective” will actually be two exhibitions, with the first running concurrently with the Weems show and then another exhibit of 25 different works May 18-Sept. 22.
Both exhibits feature works by photographers such as Edward Weston, Walker Evans, Margaret Bourke-White, and August Sander, as well as some rarely seen work by less recognized artists.
“For nearly a century after the invention of the camera, photographers tried to imitate the style of painters,” says curator Claire McRee. “But beginning in the 1910s and 1920s, they embraced the camera’s unique abilities instead.”
The Modernist vogue in photography followed a period of Pictorialism, when a kind of romantic soft focus was all the rage. Even then, there was some debate as to whether photography was art, says McRee, adding that photography had been used for a variety of
reasons since its invention in the early 19th century.
These photographers picked up on the artistic cues being used by their peers and began to experiment with and incorporate abstraction and geometry.
Included is Walker Evans’ industrial landscape “Bridge and Houses, Phillipsburg, NJ,” from 1935, featuring a shot of the free bridge between New Jersey and Easton and the tightly packed homes across the Delaware.
Evans completed a well known series of photographs in the Lehigh Valley while working for the Works Progress Administration in the 1930s, documenting the effects of The Great Depression.
“Inspired by the art world’s movement towards abstraction, these photographers began to experiment with cropping, dramatic lighting, deep focus, and unusual angles,” says McRee. “These strategies made familiar subjects, like everyday objects or landscapes, look mysterious and unexpectedly beautiful.”
“And they loved using their cameras to celebrate cities, factories, and construction — subjects that symbolized their exciting, modern age.”
August Sander was a well-known German portrait and documentary photgrapher.
Two of his portraits are included, both from his series, “Portraits of Artists,” and are a rare trea. “The Painter Willi Bongartz,” from 1924 and “The Painters Anton Radersheidt and Marta Hegemann,” from 1925, serve as beautiful examples of silver print photography from the era.
Tim Higgins is a freelance writer. Jodi.duckett@mcall.com 610-820-6704