“Framed – American metropolitan photo 1907 – 2012” at Lillehammer Art Museum – Reviews and recommendations

Photographers have been taking pictures of the city since the camera was discovered. Many people, for example, are well aware of the French photographers Charles Marville and Eugene Atget, who wanted to immortalize old Paris before Haussmann carried out his modernization in the mid-19th century. STORBYEN: Street photography flourished from the beginning of the 20th century. Today, the city has established itself as a central motif in contemporary photography as well. Berenice Abbott: “Water Front and South Street.” Photo: Berenice Abbott / BONO DEPOSITED BY SPAREBANKSTIFTELSEN DNB But the genre we like to refer to as “Street Photography” had its great flowering in the USA in the first half of the 20th century. Here it was about far more than depicting picturesque alleys, beautiful street spaces and fine house facades. It was about capturing real moments of life in the hustle and bustle of the city. SUBGROUND: I love the atmosphere of Bruce Davidson’s Subway series. Here he cultivates the fierce street aesthetics of New York in the 1980s. Photo: Bruce Davidson / BONO DEPOSITED BY THE SAVINGS BANK FOUNDATION DNB GLIMPSES OF LIFE: The clear, warm colors and the strong, fluid moments of people whizzing past you in the city’s mighty circuits. Photo: Bruce Davidson / BONO DEPOSITED BY THE SAVINGS BANK FOUNDATION DNB It is this genre that is the focus of this autumn’s large exhibition at Lillehammer Art Museum. American metropolitan photography from 1907 to 2012 is presented here, and it is unique material that is exhibited. CLOSE TO THE GENIUS: Herbert Snitzer photographed John Coltrane, one of jazz’s great stars, backstage at the Village Gate jazz club in Downtown New York in 1961. John Coltrane is one of the few celebrities depicted in the exhibition. The photographer shows respect for the great star by photographing him indirectly in the mirror. It will also be a much more exciting photograph, because we experience that we see him behind a facade, without a mask, as if in the chamber. Photo: Herbert Snitzer / BONO deposited by Sparebankstiftelsen DNB The gateway to photographic modernism One of the first things that meets me in the exhibition is one of the most famous icons in the history of photography, namely Alfred Stieglitz’s work “The Steerage” from 1907. ICONIC: “The Steerage” is taken by Alfred Stieglitz in 1907. It is said that it gradually dawned on Stieglitz as he stood and looked at this subject that he had to take a picture, and a quick one. In particular, he is said to have feared that the man with the shining, white hat would move and thwart the entire compositional balance. And it wasn’t just a matter of flipping a compact little camera out of your pocket, here you needed complicated photographic equipment with photochemistry and a glass plate. And sure enough, he succeeded, and the image really didn’t become an overnight sensation either: right up to our own time, it has excited and fascinated. It is said, among other things, that James Cameron drew inspiration from this particular photograph when he created the film Titanic. Photo: Alfred Stieglitz / BONO deposited by Sparebankstiftelsen DNB Stieglitz is often regarded as the first representative of modern, urban photography. In “The Steerage” we don’t see public life on the street, but on board a large transatlantic passenger ship. The photographer himself stood with his camera on the top deck and looked down on the almost absurd hierarchical class layer cake that the ship’s decks formed. The combination of the picture’s condensed social message, and its purely formal qualities, with play of lines and surfaces, quickly made it a photo-historical icon. Picasso is said to have claimed that this image formed the very gateway to photographic modernism. TAXI ART: Walker Evans is more of a poet. I like the rhythmic, almost monotonous repetitions in the dark surfaces that the rows of taxis form along the canal. The boats on the other side form a form of mirroring that creates balance in the expression. Photo: Walker Evans / BONO deposited by the Sparebankstiftelsen DNB With a nose for murder Another distinctive figure in metropolitan photography is Arthur Fellig, popularly called Weegee. His short, concise slogan was “Murder is my business”. As a photographer, he was not the type to sit at home and wait for assignments – he was everywhere in the city with his camera, capturing accidents and gruesome murders. ON THE SHADOW SIDE: Weegee was not only concerned with the corpse, but with everything that arose around it. He was a wonderful storyteller, who enjoyed the shadow side of the city. Although he wanted to capture the unvarnished documentary truth, Weegee sometimes added an element of staging for the image’s sake. No big moves, maybe he just moved a hat or something along those lines. Photo: Weegee / BONO DEPOSITED BY THE SAVINGS BANK FOUNDATION DNB In the car, he not only had a typewriter and photo equipment, he also had a compact, small darkroom for quickly developing images. He must have been in possession of a police radio, so that he was always up to date on what was happening where. But it often seemed as if he had even better sources than the police themselves. It was not uncommon for him to be the first on the scene. He was rumored to have supernatural abilities, giving rise to the nickname “Weegee”, an allusion to the ouija board. BEASTIAL: Weegee was regularly the very first on the scene of murders and accidents. He captured spectacular images like this of the young man who was partially decapitated by an iron grate. Photo: Weegee / BONO DEPOSITED BY THE SAVINGS BANK FOUNDATION DNB Fateful urban vision Another important figure we cannot ignore in this context is Diane Arbus. There is something fateful in her urban vision. In her photographs, she projects something mythical and fairy-tale-like into the city’s everyday life, where all the figures included radiate a secluded strangeness. She was described as someone who focused on outsiders and so-called “freaks”. But in reality she took pictures of many different types of people. There were colorful eccentrics, transgenders, homosexuals, political activists, triplets, twins and nudists. There were also people who struggled with mental illness, mental or physical developmental disabilities. People with Down’s syndrome, and both “giant” and short. DIFFERENCE: Diane Arbus is the queen of American 60s photography. She was a controversial legend within the so-called “freak photography”. Diane Arbus was concerned with what stood out. Photo: Diane Arbus / BONO deposited by Sparebankstiftelsen DNB GIRL IN LIMOUSINE: I like how the open car window sort of frames the little girl’s face. Like a floating moment in the bustle of the city. Photo: Diane Arbus / BONO deposited by Sparebankstiftelsen DNB LOOKING FOR DEVIATIONS: Diane Arbus was on the lookout for all kinds of human flaws. In Arbu’s photographs, all are lonely, isolated freaks in an alienated and anxiety-filled reality. Photo: Diane Arbus / BONO deposited by the Sparebankstiftelsen DNB She never ceased to be fascinated by the fateful fact that the inclinations and the personality we have, but also the body and the face we are born with, is something we will have to do for a long time to live with. CITY BUSY: Dorothea Lange is another towering photographer. In this picture we see with what truth she balances the various red, brown and gray tones against each other in the photograph. Here there is a rhythmic variation between the hats and also an exciting break and the one figure who both has a lighter hat, but who also turns towards us. Photo: Dorothea Lange / BONO deposited by Sparebankstiftelsen DNB Alternating luck with the graphic design For a photo geek like me, this exhibition is truly a wonderful experience. THE ART OF THE MOMENT: Garry Winogrand claims that he does not take pictures painstakingly, but almost snaps with his eyes closed, and captures a fluid, random moment with his camera. It’s quite hard to believe when looking at a perfectly composed image like this. The rich, successful ladies with lights flooding the street behind them, and the hunched man in a wheelchair in the shadows. But maybe he took so many pictures that some of them had to become great works of art? The truth is that Garry Winogrand was such a great intuitive artist that he was able to capture the powerful subjects without too much planning and staging. Photo: Garry Winogrand / BONO DEPOSITED BY THE SAVINGS BANK FOUNDATION DNB The only real joy is the graphic design. It is Snøhetta who has been responsible for this, and here there is quite a lot that does not work. But let’s start with the good: I like the picky color scheme. Black and white are used here, which are photography’s own denominations, together with elements of the clear red color of the darkroom. This is a nice coloristic move. There also ends my joy at the graphic and form-related choices that have been made. WEAK GRAPHIC DESIGN: I don’t like that the title headers in each room stick to different edges. If I hadn’t been told that this was supposed to be an illusion of street signs, I wouldn’t have understood it. Now this angling of the words just looks like a somewhat unhelpful and messy attempt to freshen up with some funny inventions that take the focus away from the photographs. Another unfortunate grep is the gigantic, temporary construction staircase that takes the audience directly to the second floor from the main hall. It is easy to understand that you are trying to create an urban backdrop, but do the photographs really need this kind of staffing? I don’t think they have been lucky either with font choice, text design or spacing. And I strongly dislike the makeshift and visually noisy construction staircase placed in the middle of the exhibition. I understand that the idea is for it to create an urban atmosphere, but unfortunately it looks more like the installation has not been fully completed. When the whole museum is full of city photography of the highest quality, we don’t need a huge steel staircase to get us in the mood! But having said that, it takes more to destroy such a powerful exhibition experience as this. Here, Lillehammer Art Museum offers an adventurous walk through the history of urban photography. I catch myself several times walking around with my mouth open, so amazed I am at all the wonderful things they have to offer. news reviewer Photo: Robert Adams / BONO deposited by Sparebankstiftelsen DNB Title: “Framed – American city photo 1907 – 2012” Where: Lillehammer Art Museum Exhibited works by: Berenice Abbott, Robert Adams, Ilse Bing, Margaret Bourke-White, Ted Croner, Imogen Cunningham , Bruce Davidson, Roy DeCarava, Morris Engel, Walker Evans, William Klein, Louis Faurer, Lee Friedlander, John Gutman, Lewis Hine, Peter Hujar, Andrè Kertèsz, Arthur Leipzig, Soul Leiter, Helen Levitt, Nicholas Nixon, Ruth Orkin, Aaron Siskind, Herbert Snitzer, Weegee, Edward Steichen, Diane Arbus, Ed Ruscha, Richard Avedon, Berenice Abbott, Edward Weston, Dorothea Lange, Gary Winogrand, William Eggleston. Curators: Øivind Storm Bjerke, Åsmund Thorkildsen, and Svein Olav Hoff Exhibition architecture and graphic design: Snøhetta. Date: 19 October–20 April 2025 Estimated time: 50-70 minutes Published 29.10.2024, at 10.19



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