Upon entering the Seeing Now: Photography Since 1960 show at the Baltimore Museum of Art, one sees the notice, “This exhibition includes some images by contemporary photographers who explore frank and challenging subjects.”
This pseudo-warning explains two central aspects of the show: to present photography not as a necessity for journalism and advertising, but as an art form in and of itself and, in doing so, presents images of lives luxurious and underprivileged, serene and tormented, that reflect the core of the human experience.
The show, on view until May 15, is comprised of four sections. The first, Seeing Pictures provides a satisfying array of imagery despite being slightly disorganized in terms of content.
Robert Frank’s black-and-white “Cape Cod” illustrates a mother, son and daughter on the beach: the mother on her stomach with her face turned away from the camera, the son next to her reading the Daily News with the cover headline “MARILYN DEAD,” while the young girl runs nude holding the American flag above them. It is a striking photograph, detailing both the allure and the tragedy of the American Dream as personified by actress Marilyn Monroe.
Placed fittingly beside “Cape Cod” is Andy Warhol’s lithograph “Marilyn Monroe Diptych,” a mass of 50 Monroe head shots. The left half is brightly colored and the right half black-and-white, with the farthest right column of faces fading into obscurity.
Some photographs focus on race relations in America. Warhol’s “Birmingham Race Riot 1964” displays a ring of white police officers and African American men — one African American in front being attacked by two police dogs — against a background of dark trees and dappled light. Near the center, the light and trees compose what looks like a human face, hidden from the subjects and staring ominously onto the scene.
But “Seeing Pictures” isn’t all so heavy-handed. Rachel Harrison’s “Untitled (egg/ice cream)” and “Untitled (dumplings/pizza)” humorously portray photography as a pivotal art form. Utilizing unusual angles and close-ups, the culinary images become abstract and distorted; once quotidian objects are now unfamiliar and bizarre.
The second section, “Seeing People,” highlights human portraiture. The group of candids from Garry Winogrand’s Women are Beautiful series boasts various unsuspecting women on the streets, keeping the focus on breasts, lips and legs. These photographs were some of the low-points of the show, as they appeared to merely exploit the female body in a creepy, voyeuristic fashion.
On the other hand, Danny Lyon’s photos from his compilation Conversations with the Dead are brutally realistic and affecting. These photographs were taken at six prison units in Texas, chronicling the daily lives of guards and prisoners whose sentences range from two years to life. The images of inmates showering, playing dominoes, and passing out from heat exhaustion as well as the guards who look on and engage, are both haunting and entrancing.
A cornered off section of the show is primarily dominated by Larry Clark’s Tulsa, another series of photos, centering on young drug users and the effects that drugs, sex and violence have on them in Tulsa, Okla.
The images progress from simple portraits and landscapes to more complicated ones of injection, expressions of euphoria and subsequent agony. Two particularly effective images stand out — one of a visibly pregnant woman shooting up, and the other of three nudes in a disheveled bedroom, a woman attempting to insert the needle into her arm while the other woman assists her.
A man looks on, his genitalia displayed prominently in the light.
“Seeing Performance” contained the least successful photographs, though the idea of inverting photography itself into a performance (not merely capturing an unrelated performance in images) was intriguing. Marco Breuer’s “Shot (C-917)” was especially creative.
In “Seeing Places,” natural landscapes juxtaposed with man-made structures are at the forefront. Sze Tsung Leong’s “Yihaoqiao, Yuzhong District, Chongqing” perfectly exemplifies this juxtaposition: construction workers and builders tend to projects in a dilapidated area surrounded by looming, sophisticated buildings in a rapidly modernizing China.
In “Water Towers,” Bernd and Hilla Becher capture and portray German water towers as impressive sculptures which stand regally and gallantly against an otherwise dreary setting.
Seeing Now: Photography Since 1960 excels tremendously and delves straight into human lives and contemplates the very notion of art itself.
With over 70 featured artists, this is a show not to be missed.
