From the bustling streets and skyscrapers of New York City to the rural, Depression-era American South; from the lives of inmates in the Texas prison system to the violence, drug use and sexuality of adolescents, the "7 Documentarians" photography exhibition at the David Winton Bell Gallery illuminates the different facets of 20th-century America.
While taking in the different works, it is easy to become absorbed in the details of each photograph. Shots of New York City streets capture split seconds when the shadows of skyscrapers fell strikingly on sidewalks. Every brick in every building seems to contribute to the pattern and balance of the photographs, and the way each photographer observed and coordinated each shot so precisely is simply breathtaking. In the end, though, it is not the details of each photo or the artistry of the photographer that deserves praise. The real power comes from the exhibition as a whole.
The exhibition features works drawn from the gallery's permanent collection by artists including Berenice Abbott, Walker Evans, Garry Winogrand, Larry Clark, Danny Lyon, Jim Dow and Jay Wolke. The works are displayed chronologically to offer insight into the social changes and technical innovations that affected photography through the century.
1930s America is first highlighted with works by Abbott and Evans. Abbott's photos document New York City after the first boom of skyscraper construction and feature images of tall buildings, street peddlers and storefronts. Through such images, Abbott set out to create a complex map of urban life, from Wall Street and the South Street district to Harlem and the outer boroughs. Meanwhile, Evans' art, a product of his work in the 1930s for the Farm Security Administration, documents American life during the Depression. His works also include images of Cuba ("The Crime of Cuba") as well as candid portraits of New York City subway passengers.
The exhibition then moves on to documentary photographs of the 1960s and 1970s. Winogrand's works focus on moments when unrelated activities coincide. Typically shot from the hip and at an angle, his photographs juxtapose different elements of street life. One notable work, "Women are Beautiful" (1975), features determined women on the streets of New York going about their business, unaware of being photographed.
Clark, on the other hand, uses raw and controversial images to explore themes such as dysfunctional family relationships, masculinity and violence and the construction of adolescent identity. He uses sexually explicit imagery and scenes of drug use and violence in a series titled "Tulsa" to shock the audience, rendering his images of the subculture of the 1960s and 1970s unforgettable.
Lyon's work "Conversations with the Dead" documents life in six different Texas prisons, which he photographed over a 14-month period in 1967 and 1968. Lyon stated in the introduction to his series that he tried "with whatever I had to make a picture of imprisonment as distressing as I knew it to be in reality" by including text from prison records and convicts' writings.
Finally, the late 1970s and 1980s are captured in photographs from Dow ("American and National League Stadiums") and Wolke ("Along the Divide: Photographs of the Dan Ryan Expressway"). In his series, Dow was commissioned to photograph more than 200 major and minor league baseball stadiums in the United States and Canada. Wolke's series explores life on, around and under one of the nation's busiest and most dangerous expressways.
Each of the photographers presents a unique facet of American society through his or her works. But the viewer is most affected after walking through the entire exhibition and viewing it holistically. One quickly forgets the titles of the photos and the names of the artists and instead sees the works as snapshots of American history, all of which come together to form a montage of the 20th century. Together, these pictures are not worth 1,000 words, but rather 100 years.
The Bell Gallery is located in List Art Center and is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. "7 Documentarians" will be on display until May 10.
