Past Exhibitions
Keeping Shadows:
Photography from the Worcester Art Museum
Photography has the ability to deeply move us. Compelling images of faces, figures and places frozen in time reflect who we are and where we’ve been. In its short history, it has profoundly impacted our lives and the way we see and understand each other and the world around us. This powerful exhibition encompasses more than 150 years of photography, with more than 100 images drawn from one of the oldest and finest photographic collections in the nation. It explores the history of photography as it evolved, featuring the different interests, approaches and styles of dozens of photographers.
From daguerreotypes to digital prints, Keeping Shadows includes masterworks by such innovators and icons of the medium as Alfred Stieglitz, Matthew Brady, Lewis Carroll, Julia Margaret Cameron, Eadweard Muybridge, Ansel Adams, Paul Strand, Cecil Beaton, Walker Evans, Margaret Bourke-White, Dorothea Lange, Robert Capa, Imogen Cunningham, Man Ray, Edward Steichen, Jacob Riis, Arthur Fellig, Diane Arbus, Richard Avedon, Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Bernice Abbott, Cindy Sherman, and many others. Many of the images are as familiar today as our own family photos.
Since photography’s genesis in 1839 with the first daguerreotypes, photographers have continually experimented and improved its processes, leading to fascinating images capturing things unseen before with the naked eye, from the movement of a speeding bullet or galloping horse to today’s awe-inspiring views of distant planets. The earliest photographers turned to art history for inspiration in setting up compositions and, likewise, artists began to use the camera as a tool in the creation of paintings.
In the early 20th century, Pictorialism gained popularity in America, a style in which photographers such as Alfred Stieglitz conceived their images as works of art, often mimicking drawing and painting. In the 1930s, a new generation of photographers who believed that photography needn’t copy other media, such as Ansel Adams, countered Pictorialism and worked to gain recognition for photography as an art form in its own right. The exhibition includes seminal examples of both aesthetic approaches.
Photography’s documentary ability has been part of its appeal throughout its history. For example, depictions of the American Civil War, by such photographers as Matthew Brady and Timothy O’Sullivan, captured the stark horrors of military conflict in a way not seen before. The exhibition features fine examples of photojournalism and social-documentary photography, from images of historical events to the grit and glamour of New York City and views of American life, such as Dorothea Lange’s moving Depression Era portraits. Also included are stunning images of fashion and celebrity, as well as the elaborately staged compositions of such post-modern photographers as Cindy Sherman.
Keeping Shadows presents a rare opportunity to enjoy remarkable pictures from around the world, and beyond, that span the history of photography as an artistic medium.
Keeping Shadows: Photography from the Worcester Art Museum was organized by the Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Mass. Major support is provided by APS. Additional support is provided by Accenture. Promotional support is provided by The Arizona Republic, News Radio 620 KTAR, Barnes & Noble, KJZZ/KBAQ Public Radio Phoenix, Jewish News of Greater Phoenix and Latino Perspectives Magazine.
Left:Io over Jupiter, January 1, 2001, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 2001. Digital ink-jet print. Worcester Art Museum Collection, Purchased through the gift of Christopher Scholz. Right:Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California, Dorothea Lange, 1936. Gelatin silver print. Worcester Art Museum Collection, Museum purchase.