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3/6/2012 Houston— In November 2012, the Museum of Fine
Arts, Houston, will debut an unprecedented exhibition exploring the
experience of war through the eyes of photographers. WAR/PHOTOGRAPHY:
Photographs of Armed Conflict and its Aftermath includes nearly 500
objects, including photographs, books, magazines, albums and
photographic equipment. The photographs were made by over 280
photographers from 28 nations who have covered conflict on six
continents over 165 years, from the Mexican-American War in 1846 through
present-day conflicts. Organized by a curatorial team consisting of Anne
Wilkes Tucker, Gus and Lyndall Wortham Curator of Photography, Will
Michels, photographer and Glassell School of Art instructor, and Natalie
Zelt, MFAH curatorial assistant for photography, the exhibition will
travel to the Annenberg Space for Photography, Los Angeles; the Corcoran
Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; and the Brooklyn Museum. The
exhibition is accompanied by a 600-page catalogue of the same title,
with interviews and essays by the curators, contributing scholars and
military historians.
The exhibition takes a critical look at the relationship between war and photography, exploring what types of photographs are, and are not, made, and by whom and for whom, during wartime. Rather than presenting a chronological survey of wartime photographs or a survey of “greatest hits,” the curators have identified types of photographs repeatedly made during the many phases of war—regardless of the size or cause of the conflict, the photographers’ or subjects’ culture or the era in which the pictures were made. The images in the exhibition will be organized according to the progression of war, from the acts that instigate armed conflict to “the fight,” to victory and defeat, and images that memorialize a war,
“WAR/PHOTOGRAPHY promises to be another pioneering exhibition, following other landmark MFAH photography exhibitions such as Czech Modernism: 1900-1945 (1989) and The History of Japanese Photography (2003),” said Gary Tinterow, MFAH director. “Anne Tucker, along with her co-curators Natalie Zelt and Will Michels, have spent a decade in preparing this unprecedented exploration of the complex and profound relationship between war and photography.”
“Photographs serve the public as a collective memory of the experience of war,” commented Tucker. “Yet most presentations that deal with the material are organized chronologically or focus on one photographer, or a specific war. We believe WAR/PHOTOGRAPHY is unique in its scope, exploring conflict and its consequences across the globe and over time, analyzing this complex and unrelenting phenomenon.”
The earliest works in the exhibition is from 1847, taken from the first photographed conflict: the Mexican-American War. Other early examples include photographs from the Crimean War, including Roger Fenton’s iconic The Valley of the Shadow of Death (1855) and Felice Beato’s photograph of the devastated interior of Fort Taku in India during the Second Opium War (1860). Among the most recent images is a 2008 photograph of the Battle Company of the 173rd Airborne Brigade in the remote Korengal Valley of Eastern Afghanistan by Tim Hetherington, who was killed in April 2011 while covering the civil war in Libya. Also represented with two photographs in the exhibition is Chris Hondros, who was killed with Hetherington. While the exhibition is organized according to the phases of war, portraits of servicemen, military and political leaders and civilians are a consistent presence throughout the exhibition, including Yusuf Karsh’s classic image of Winston Churchill and the Marlboro Marine (2004), taken by embedded Los Angeles Times photographer Luis Sinco of soldier James Blake Miller after an assault in Fallujah (Iraq), published worldwide on the cover of 150 publications, and a 2005 Pulitzer Prize finalist.
The exhibition was initiated in 2002, when the museum acquired what is purported to be the first print made from Joe Rosenthal’s negative of Old Glory Goes Up on Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima (1945). From this initial acquisition, the curators decided to organize an exhibition that would focus on war photography as a genre. During the evolution of the project, the museum acquired over a third of the prints in the exhibition. The curators have been joined on this ambitious project by an international advisory committee: Hilary V. Roberts, Head of Collections Management, Imperial War Museum Photograph Archive, London; Dr. John Stauffer, Chair of
the History of American Civilization and Professor of English and African and African American Studies at Harvard University; Dr. William Sheldon Dudley, former director of Naval History for the U.S. Navy Department and retired director of the Naval Historical Center, D.C.; Jeffrey William Hunt, Director of the Texas Military Forces Museum in Austin; Dr. Xavia Karner, Chair, Sociology department at the University of Houston; and Captain Paul J. Matthews, founder and chairman of the Buffalo Soldiers National Museum in Houston. Dr. Bodo von Dewitz, Senior Chief Curator, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany, and Liam Kennedy, Director of the Clinton Institute for American Studies, University College, Dublin, also contributed essays to the catalogue.
The exhibition curators reviewed over one million photographs in 17 countries, locating pictures in archives, military libraries, museums, private collections, historical societies, news agencies and the personal files of photographers and service personnel, as well as at the annual photojournalism festivals: World Press Photo (Amsterdam) and Visa pour l’ Image (Perpignan, France). In their appraisals, they sought images for the clarity of their observation as well as their capacity to make memorable and striking pictures that have lasting relevance. The pictures were made by some of the most celebrated conflict photographers, and many who remain anonymous. Almost every photographic process is included, ranging from daguerreotypes to inkjet prints, digital captures and cell-phone shots.
The exhibition opens at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, on view November 11, 2012–February 3, 2013
The exhibition takes a critical look at the relationship between war and photography, exploring what types of photographs are, and are not, made, and by whom and for whom, during wartime. Rather than presenting a chronological survey of wartime photographs or a survey of “greatest hits,” the curators have identified types of photographs repeatedly made during the many phases of war—regardless of the size or cause of the conflict, the photographers’ or subjects’ culture or the era in which the pictures were made. The images in the exhibition will be organized according to the progression of war, from the acts that instigate armed conflict to “the fight,” to victory and defeat, and images that memorialize a war,
“WAR/PHOTOGRAPHY promises to be another pioneering exhibition, following other landmark MFAH photography exhibitions such as Czech Modernism: 1900-1945 (1989) and The History of Japanese Photography (2003),” said Gary Tinterow, MFAH director. “Anne Tucker, along with her co-curators Natalie Zelt and Will Michels, have spent a decade in preparing this unprecedented exploration of the complex and profound relationship between war and photography.”
“Photographs serve the public as a collective memory of the experience of war,” commented Tucker. “Yet most presentations that deal with the material are organized chronologically or focus on one photographer, or a specific war. We believe WAR/PHOTOGRAPHY is unique in its scope, exploring conflict and its consequences across the globe and over time, analyzing this complex and unrelenting phenomenon.”
The earliest works in the exhibition is from 1847, taken from the first photographed conflict: the Mexican-American War. Other early examples include photographs from the Crimean War, including Roger Fenton’s iconic The Valley of the Shadow of Death (1855) and Felice Beato’s photograph of the devastated interior of Fort Taku in India during the Second Opium War (1860). Among the most recent images is a 2008 photograph of the Battle Company of the 173rd Airborne Brigade in the remote Korengal Valley of Eastern Afghanistan by Tim Hetherington, who was killed in April 2011 while covering the civil war in Libya. Also represented with two photographs in the exhibition is Chris Hondros, who was killed with Hetherington. While the exhibition is organized according to the phases of war, portraits of servicemen, military and political leaders and civilians are a consistent presence throughout the exhibition, including Yusuf Karsh’s classic image of Winston Churchill and the Marlboro Marine (2004), taken by embedded Los Angeles Times photographer Luis Sinco of soldier James Blake Miller after an assault in Fallujah (Iraq), published worldwide on the cover of 150 publications, and a 2005 Pulitzer Prize finalist.
The exhibition was initiated in 2002, when the museum acquired what is purported to be the first print made from Joe Rosenthal’s negative of Old Glory Goes Up on Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima (1945). From this initial acquisition, the curators decided to organize an exhibition that would focus on war photography as a genre. During the evolution of the project, the museum acquired over a third of the prints in the exhibition. The curators have been joined on this ambitious project by an international advisory committee: Hilary V. Roberts, Head of Collections Management, Imperial War Museum Photograph Archive, London; Dr. John Stauffer, Chair of
the History of American Civilization and Professor of English and African and African American Studies at Harvard University; Dr. William Sheldon Dudley, former director of Naval History for the U.S. Navy Department and retired director of the Naval Historical Center, D.C.; Jeffrey William Hunt, Director of the Texas Military Forces Museum in Austin; Dr. Xavia Karner, Chair, Sociology department at the University of Houston; and Captain Paul J. Matthews, founder and chairman of the Buffalo Soldiers National Museum in Houston. Dr. Bodo von Dewitz, Senior Chief Curator, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany, and Liam Kennedy, Director of the Clinton Institute for American Studies, University College, Dublin, also contributed essays to the catalogue.
The exhibition curators reviewed over one million photographs in 17 countries, locating pictures in archives, military libraries, museums, private collections, historical societies, news agencies and the personal files of photographers and service personnel, as well as at the annual photojournalism festivals: World Press Photo (Amsterdam) and Visa pour l’ Image (Perpignan, France). In their appraisals, they sought images for the clarity of their observation as well as their capacity to make memorable and striking pictures that have lasting relevance. The pictures were made by some of the most celebrated conflict photographers, and many who remain anonymous. Almost every photographic process is included, ranging from daguerreotypes to inkjet prints, digital captures and cell-phone shots.
The exhibition opens at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, on view November 11, 2012–February 3, 2013
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