“I was snookered into photography to begin with — captured by certain aspects of the medium — and it’s simply been a matter of deciding what I could do within that context. The whole reason I’m in this curatorship is Beaumont [Newhall].” […]
“I was snookered into photography to begin with — captured by certain aspects of the medium — and it’s simply been a matter of deciding what I could do within that context. The whole reason I’m in this curatorship is Beaumont [Newhall].” […] John Pfahl’s innovative work in landscape photography focused on the problems of perception and representation. He systematically questioned the medium. His early and probably best-known series, “Altered Landscapes,” is a perfect example of his constant quest. […] What we’re offered instead is merely a set of pictures John Szarkowski likes — a comparative bagatelle … Such a misuse of power, prestige and influence is an effective if lamentable indication of why the Modern’s credibility and influence on the medium have waned so dramatically during the last decade of his tenure. […] It is little short of scandalous that the Museum of Modern Art has never given a one-man show to a non-white photographer, for there are many at least as talented as some of those photographers the museum has chosen to show over the years. […] The difference between a graphic artist such as Robert Rauschenberg, who incorporates photographic images in his work, and a photographer such as Scott Hyde, who employs silk-screen techniques in producing his final picture, is one that I do not care to define. […] |