In the spring of 2018, a selection of works from the Museum’s collections investigates the ways in which experiences of belonging and alienation have been both a subject and an effect of photography. Photographers have long sought to depict human relationships and social dynamics. At the same time, the acts of taking and viewing photographs create new relationships between photographer, subject, and viewer. The images on view, from the early years following the technology’s invention to the present, illustrate the many ways that photography intersects with social experience.
These works are displayed alongside an array of historical images that includes family portraits, artist’s aids, images of war, photographic amusements, advertisements, and news agency pictures. Considering the motives behind these varied images raises important questions about the photographic encounter. What are the responsibilities of the photographer as the link between subject and viewer? How do subjects assert their own right to represent themselves? In a time when photographs saturate our social lives as never before, these images ask us to consider both the empathetic promise of the medium and its limitations.
Daniel Peacock, Ph.D. candidate, Art and Archaeology
Katherine A. Bussard, Peter C. Bunnell Curator of Photography