Photography in Boston: 1955–1985
Joyce and Edward Linde Gallery, James and Audrey Foster Galleries, Fourth Floor Hallway Galleries
September 16, 2000 – January 21, 2001
Opening Reception: Friday, September 15 from 6 – 9 pm
Vaughn Sills, Untitled (Mother and Self), 1984–1986, silver gelatin print with selective toning, 16" x 20"
Boston has been and continues to be a key player in the development of the history of photography. DeCordova’s major fall exhibition, Photography in Boston: 1955–1985, which was organized by Director of Curatorial Affairs Rachel Rosenfield Lafo and Curatorial Fellow Gillian Nagler, demonstrates why Boston has played such an important role in photography from the 1950s to the mid-1980s. The 30-year period covered by the project coincides with the Boston area’s growth as a center for education and technology. This comprehensive exhibition includes 231 works by 60 photographers.
Click here for a list of the featured artists.
The 30-year period chosen for this project encompasses photography’s acceptance as an art form, the influence of modernism, and the coalescence of a unique constellation of educational institutions, museums, and technological developments in the Boston area that directly influenced artistic options for photography. This period coincides with the area’s growth in the fields of electronics, space research laboratories, computer and software products, biotechnology, genetic engineering, printing and publishing, higher education, and finance. Cambridge, long recognized as a center for education and technology, for example, was the city where Dr. Harold Edgerton invented electronic stroboscopic flash photography in 1930 and Dr. Edwin Land invented instant photography in 1947. Both of these innovations had a lasting impact on the technological development of photography as well as its aesthetics. The focus of Photography in Boston is on photographers and institutions active in Boston and surrounding areas, such as Worcester and western Massachusetts, as well as the influence of photographers teaching at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, specifically Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind.
Photography in Boston’s accompanying catalogue, which is co-published with MIT Press ($39.95), details the chronological development of photography in the Boston region (including Western Massachusetts and Providence) by discussing the artists, galleries, collectors, museums, and corporations who were involved in advancing photography as an art form. The catalogue has 70 reproductions, 25 color and 45 black and white images. Catalogue essays were written by Rachel Rosenfield Lafo, Director of Curatorial Affairs, DeCordova; A.D. Coleman, photography critic, author, and teacher; Kim Sichel, Assistant Professor of Art History, Boston University; and Arno Minkkinen, Professor of Art, University of Massachusetts, Lowell. To order your catalogue, contact David Duddy at The Store @ DeCordova, dduddy@decordova.org or call 781/259-8692.
With the presentation of Photography in Boston: 1955–1985, DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park launches the largest exhibition and publication project in its history. Photography in Boston: 1955–1985 is the first of three exhibitions and catalogues that will consider how art has developed in the Boston area during the latter half of the twentieth century. Forthcoming will be Painting in Boston and Sculpture in Boston. Together the three are intended to comprise, not necessarily an encyclopedia, but certainly a well-informed perspective on the major players, directions, and social and aesthetic forces operative in the Boston area over the past 50 years. The second half of the twentieth century is, in fact, the period of DeCordova. The Museum opened to the public in October 1950, and so this exhibition precisely marks the 50anniversary of its operation.
Photography in Boston is supported by grants from the Polaroid Corporation and the LEF Foundation, the Stratford Foundation, and the Charina Foundation.
The 60 artists featured in Photography in Boston: 1955–1985 are:
(Click on the Artist's name to view their work)
Berenice Abbott |
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Lotte Jacobi |
Rudolph Robinson |
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Bill Burke |
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Harry Callahan |
Sage Sohier |
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William Clift |
Shellburne Thurber |
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Marie Cosindas |
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Paul Petricone |
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Harold Edgerton |
William Wegman |
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Minor White |
DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park is funded in part by the Institute of Museum Services, a federal agency, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency which also receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Photography Related Programs
Symposium
Getting Focussed: Perspectives on Photography in Boston: 1955–1985
Annual Paul J. Cronin Memorial Lecture
Dewey Family Gallery
Saturday, November 4
Symposium: 1:30 – 5 pm
Reception and book signing: 5 – 6 pm
This year’s annual Paul J. Cronin Memorial Lecture is an important symposium that marks the major retrospective exhibition at DeCordova—Photography in Boston: 1955–1985. Joining DeCordova in providing a fresh perspective on the Boston photography scene are the very people who helped to create it. Internationally renowned photography critic and author A.D. Coleman’s keynote address will explore creative pluralism in the photographic medium. Coleman will be joined by DeCordova Director of Curatorial Affairs Rachel Rosenfield Lafo to moderate two panel discussions on teaching, exhibiting, and collecting and on the different modes of photographic expression. Panel participants include Clifford Ackley, Karl Baden, Carl Chiarenza, Chris Enos, Deborah Martin Kao, Robert Klein, Jerome Liebling, and Shellburne Thurber. Admission is $35 for Members, $45 Non-Members. For more information or reservations call 781/259-3622.
Meet the Artists
Third Floor Main Lobby
Saturdays, 3 pm
Meet two of the artists from Photography in Boston: 1955–1985 as they discuss their work in informal gallery presentations. Free with Museum admission.
November 18, 3 pm John O’Reilly
December 2, 3 pm Lou Jones
January 13, 3 pm Barbara Hitchcock, Director of Cultural Affairs, Polaroid Corporation
