Abstract: The Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College, Chicago, houses a vast collection of American photography created after 1959, the year of the U.S. publication of Robert Frank's The Americans, the arbitrary yet pertinent date set for the museum's collection policy. Photography's Multiple Roles: Art, Document, Market, Science pulls from this collection to examine and find the connection between these four aspects of photography today. The exhibition and catalog include 170 works as well as illuminating essays. The Museum navigates contemporary photography's diverse and complex associations with visionary brilliance. The exhibition presented an astounding compilation of photographic works by artists from Louise Dahl-Wolfe to Annie Leibovitz; Harold Edgerton to Nancy Burson; Diane Arbus to Nan Goldin; Dorothea Lange to Mary Ellen Mark; Robert Heinecken to Mike and Doug Starn; Ansel Adams to Eliot Porter to Mark Klett. Most of the photographers served as inspiration for future generations, such as with Anne Noggle, Sally Mann, Carrie Mae Weems, MANUAL, Joel-Peter Witkin and Andres Serrano. As the museum is connected to a school, the students at Columbia College, Chicago are some of the beneficiaries of this exhibition. Perhaps this audience inspired the Museum to hang such an ambitious amount of work in the galleries. Viewing original work is an essential part of the Columbia College education. Although visually spectacular, the exhibition was at times overwhelming. The sheer quantity of images coupled with the Museum's warren-like physical space made it necessary to place images extremely close together and in every available nook, cranny and stairwell. In addition, unlike the catalog, the physical design of the space and exhibition made it difficult to follow a progression of what was considered art, document, market and science. This was especially evident when encountering Eugenia Parry's quasi-fictional essays printed as wall texts. Although a fascinating juxtaposition, her essays appeared without a context and ended abruptly. While the exhibition was like an illustration of the big bang theory, the catalog is easier to navigate. It plots an organized and fluid system of understanding photography's multiple roles. The applications and potentialities of this system allow for an appreciation of the photograph as art, as document, as part of the commercial market and as scientific investigation. The introductory essay by curator Denise Miller, museum director since 1986, provides a balanced, positive and clearly articulated description of the museum's guide for the collection. Miller states that the works have been most importantly selected for their aesthetic and philosophical perspective; the collection contains renowned works and ground-breaking experiments. The Museum's inclusive and welcoming vision also pays tribute to the past efforts of others in the community. Miller cites the Columbia College Photography Department's initial conviction to create a museum whose mission is to exhibit and collect works that engage the mind and delight the eye. Miller upholds this conviction with an equally comprehensive vision in concept and form with Photography's Multiple Roles. She also credits a long line of curators, educators and historians such as Van Deren Coke, A.D. Coleman, Rosalind Krauss, Abigail Solomon-Godeau and Andy Grundberg in the development of an interactive approach far removed from the purist aesthetics of Modernism. Each image in the exhibition speaks to this informed layering and aesthetic power. Examples of this are Keith Carter's mesmerizing Atlas Moth (1990) and Edgerton's Football Kick (1938/84). The ripples of shimmering silk of the football player's uniform the split second the football is hurled into the air is a spine-tingling demonstration. For the most part the reproductions in the catalog convey all the images' vibrancy and resonating visual qualities. …
Publication Year: 1999
Publication Date: 1999-05-01
Language: en
Type: article
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