Memorial Day: John F. Kennedy’s 100 birthday

Associated Press, Unidentified Photographer, [John F. Kennedy], 1925 (2012.91.4)

Unidentified Photographer, [John F. Kennedy, Solomon Islands], 1943 (2012.91.8)

Cornell Capa, [John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jackie, campaigning in New York], October 19, 1960 (124.2004)

Associated Press, Unidentified Photographer, [President-elect John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy at baptism of John F. Kennedy Jr., Georgetown University Hospital, Washington, DC], December 8, 1960 (2012.92.19)

United Press International, Unidentified Photographer, [President John F. Kennedy speaking at the U. N. General Assembly, United Nations], September 20, 1963 (2013.96.138)

Associated Press, Unidentified Photographer, [Joan Bennett Kennedy, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, and Patricia Kennedy Lawford, kneeling John F. Kennedy’s casket, Washington, DC], November 25, 1963 (2012.94.52)

Pearl Primus

John Albert, [Pearl Primus dancing at a Fiesta Republicana, Dexter Park, Queens, New York], July 19, 1943 (2013.115.41)

“In Memory of Free Spain Pearl Primus, of Café Society (downtown), entertains at a Fiesta Republicana held yesterday at Dexter Park, Queens, by friends of Republican Spain on the seventh anniversary of Franco’s rebellion.” (PM, July 19, 1948)

At the age of two, Pearl Primus (1919-1994) moved, with her family, from the Laventille ward of Port of Spain, Trinidad to New York City. She grew up in the city and aspired to become a doctor. While pursuing a graduate degree in biology from Hunter College she discovered dance and won a scholarship from the New Dance Group. Her debut performance in February 1943 was met with great acclaim. It lead to her becoming a regular at the famous Café Society Downtown, performing at the Negro Freedom Rally in Madison Square Garden, and many more honors within the same year. Pearl Primus devoted her career to studying African dance and traveled extensively for her research. She was instrumental in introducing those traditions to America and western Modern Dance.

Barbara Morgan, Pearl Primus–Speak to Me of Rivers, 1944(printed ca. 1972) (546.1986)

This image of Pearl Primus was taken by Barbara Morgan (1900-1992), an American interdisciplinary artist, who is best known for her definitive photographs of many pioneers of modern dance. She was an early member of the Photo League and co-founded Aperture magazine.

Alexander DeSouza, intern, Collections department

“A Drop in the Bucket of the Principles of Science”

Berenice Abbott (1898-1991), Parabolic Mirror, 1958 (22.1986)

Parabolic mirror is created by group of small mirrors. Light from an object (the eye) is reflected by each mirror to same point (camera). This illustrates, basically, a principle used in mirrors of astronomical telescopes. Think, February 1962, p. 9)

Berenice Abbott says this was one of the hardest photos that she ever made, and it was important to include the “funny, little, homely base.” Perhaps this photo reflects Abbott’s surrealist roots and the influence of surrealist friends (Man Ray, etc.). Coincidentally, at around the same time, Weegee was, apparently effortlessly, cranking out a multitude of photos of multiple eyes using mirrors and kaleidoscopes (an early scientific instrument).

Berenice Abbott (1898-1991), A Bouncing Ball in Diminishing Arcs, 1958-61 (24.1986)
One of Abbott’s early science photos, made in a small basement, characterized by the complex lighting used to maintain the blackness of the black background and to retain the three-dimensionality of the bouncing (golf) ball.

Berenice Abbott speaking about her science photos at ICP on November 5th, 1979.

After Berenice Abbott stopped photographing New York, she wanted to photograph science. Portraits of big little things, often unseen to the naked eye, unchanging science. For about 20 years she tried to make science photos, and was unsuccessful in finding support. A letter that articulates Abbott’s interest in photographing science:

We live in a world made by science. But we–the millions of laymen–do not understand or appreciate the knowledge which thus controls daily life.
To obtain wide popular support for science, to that end that we may explore this vast subject even further and bring as yet unexplored areas under control, there needs to be a friendly interpreter between science and the layman.
I believe that photography can be this spokesman, as no other form of expression can be; for photography, the art of our time, the mechanical, scientific medium which matches the pace and character of our era, is attuned to the function. There is an essential unity between photography, science’s child, and science, the parent.
Yet so far the task of photographing scientific subjects and endowing them with popular appeal and scientific correctness has not been mastered. The function of the artist is needed here, as well as the function of the recorder. The artist through history has been the spokesman and conservator of human and spiritual energies and ideas. Today science needs its voice. It needs the vivification of the visual image, the warm human quality of imagination added to its austere and stern disciplines. It needs to speak to the people in terms they will understand. They can understand photography preeminently.
To me, this function of photography seems extraordinarily urgent and exciting. Scientific subject matter may well be the most thrilling of today. My hope of moving into this new field comes logically in my own evolution as a photographer.
After I had explored the possibilities of portrait photography in Paris for some years, I set myself the task of documenting New York City. Now after ten years of work at this interpretation, I find this phase of my career rounded out with the publication of my book, Changing New York.
The problem of documenting science, of presenting its realistic subject matter with the same integrity as one portrays the culture morphology of our civilization, and yet of endowing this material so strange and unfamiliar to the public with the poetry of its own vast implications, would seem to me to lead logically from my previous experience.
I am now seeking channels through which this new creative task may be approached.
Berenice Abbott
New York City, April 24, 1939
Source: Berenice Abbott: Photography and Science (1939)

In 1958, motivated, in part, by the low quality and lack of originality in the science book illustrations of the time and the launch of the Sputnik 1 satellite by the Soviet Union in 1957, Abbott got a job with the Physical Science Study Committee (PSSC) at MIT to illustrate a new physics book. For about three years she had a great time photographing the principals of science. She speaks about some of the obstacles and prejudices and lighting difficulties that she had to overcome to make her photos. Intriguingly she refers to herself as “the least arty photographer in America” and states that she “hates art photography.” Abbott concludes by saying about her science photos “I don’t know. Hope something comes of them some day.”

In addition to this blog post, Abbott’s science photos have been widely published and exhibited posthumously including: “Berenice Abbott: Portraits, New York Views, and Science Photographs from the Permanent Collection” at ICP in 1996, and in the twenty first century “Berenice Abbott: Science Photographs” at The New York Public Library in 1999-2000, and “Berenice Abbott: Photography and Science: An Essential Unity” at MIT in 2012.

Abbott’s science photos were featured in IBM’s Think magazine in 1962:

Think, February 1962 (cover, pp. 6-9)

See-It-Yourself-Science
A classic problem for physics teachers is to give vivid laboratory demonstrations of the physical phenomena they are discussing. Now, various experts have joined forces to bring help. for example, by combining great imagination and several photographic techniques, such as time exposure and stroboscopic flash, Berenice Abbott has produced images so vivid that some of them show students more than they see in the lab.
This sort of see-it-yourself science illustrates the modern teaching aids developed by the Physical Science Study Committee, a group of university and high school teachers, which was created to give both high school and college students a firmer footing in physics. The PSSC project was launched in 1956 with a grant from the National Science Foundation, which has contributed most of the financial support. (The Ford Foundation and Alfred P. Sloan Foundation have also contributed.)
The result of the PSSC work is a fresh approach to physics in the form of a vastly improved textbook (physics, D.C. Heath) in which graphically clear illustrations appear. The new method cuts down learning time for fundamentals so that students can move on, at a faster pace, to the more advanced theories of the modern world – a world where some of them will pry into the secretive heart of the atom, while others will pear out to the unknown regions of outer space.
Think, February 1962, pp. 6-8

References:
Making Science Visible: The Photography of Berenice Abbott by Hannah Star Rogers.
Physical Science Study Committee, 1956 MIT Library
Berenice Abbott: Photography and Science (1939) The University of Maryland, Baltimore County
“Berenice Abbott: the photography trailblazer who had supersight” by Sean O’Hagan.
“Abbott and the MIT Physical Science Study Committee” by Colleen O’Reilly.

Berenice Abbott (1898-1991), Magnetic Field, 1959 (664.1984)

“LOOK PLEASANT PLEASE!”

Charles S. Peterson, Look Pleasant Please!, 1912 (2014.29.5)

Miss Clara Hoorman Sleepy Eye, Minn.

We have a dozen post cards here for you which you ordered way back last April. Would appreciate it if you would call for them.

Very Truly,
Chas S. Peterson

Charles S. Peterson, Look Pleasant Please!, 1912 (2014.29.5, verso)

Fansinaflashbulb photo of the day.

Eye See

Unidentified Photographer, [Unidentified Man], ca. 1865-70, (2014.18.1)

This tintype is striking. The portrait, a recent acquisition, is large: a full-plate, 8 3/8 x 6 3/8 inches. There’s a thoughtful minimalism. The sitter is sublime, with abundant and equine facial hair. He’s sitting at a slight angle. And staring straight ahead, not at the camera, forever. Is anything reflected in the unidentified subject’s eyes? If one looked into the his eyes, is it possible to see what he sees? The overhead natural light can be seen, but few details. What do you see?

Fansinaflashbulb photo of the day and a closer look.

“How are you all?”

Unidentified Photographer, [W.L. Howell outside his studio. Olney, Illinois], 1910 (2014.15.2)

Mrs. E. R. Pygott,
Sesser, Ill.

Olney, Ill, 29, 10

Dear Sister,

How are you all? We are well and we would appreciate a few words from you to know how you are all.

Sincerely Yours,
WL & HC
Howell

Fansinaflashbulb photo of the day and a closer look.

A Closer Look at a Mike Disfarmer Photo

Mike Disfarmer (1884-1959), [Group photo, Heber Springs, Arkansas], 1930s (2014.65.7)

Disfarmer’s photos are well-known and sometimes well-used. They are small, often about 4 1/2 x 3 inches. And always portraits, usually of one or perhaps a pair of people, presumably the residents of Heber Springs, Arkansas. This photo, a recent acquisition, at 5 x 6 15/16 inches, and in a paper frame, 7 3/4 x 9 inches, is different than the other 872 Disfarmer photos in the ICP archive. Being different is good. Apparently Mike Disfarmer (born Mike Meyer or Meyers) was different than the other residents of Heber Springs.

“Disfarmer was not a particularly social individual, and little is known about his life. Around 1930, when a tornado killed his mother and destroyed his house, he built a new studio on Main Street, and established himself as the town photographer. He tended to keep to himself, and was considered strange and eccentric by many townspeople.”
Source: Lisa Hostetler. Handy et al. Reflections in a Glass Eye: Works from the International Center of Photography Collection, New York: Bulfinch Press in association with the International Center of Photography, 1999, p. 214

 

“Peace Now!”

Joe Brainard (1942-1994), [Peace Now!], 1971 (832.2002)

Herbert Perr, [Who Is Going to Believe Hypocritical Fairytales?], 1970-71, mixed media prototype for a poster that was never produced, (879.2002)

Who is going to believe hypocritical fairytales
When, behind a facade of noble ideas,
The price of revolver lubricant rises
And the price of human life falls?

I should like to drop
On the hay, with my head on her knee,
And lie dead still, while she
Breathed quiet above me; and the crop
Of stars grew silently.

Ad Reinhardt (1913-1967), [Untitled (Postcard to War Chief)], 1967 (805.2002)

Three poetic male/mail art/no art objects about peace/no war; revealing a muscular/minimal body of work by the Artists’ Poster Committee of the Art Workers Coalition.

“The trees are exquisite in Japan”

Werner Bischof (1916-1954), [The Silver Pavilion, Kyoto], 1952 (925.1974)

Werner Bischof (1916-1954), [Shinto priests in courtyard of Meiji Shrine, Tokyo], 1951 (876.1974)

Werner Bischof (1916-1954), [“Magic flowers” on the Ginza, Tokyo], 1951 (915.1974)

Werner Bischof (1916-1954), [World War Two veteran, the Ginza, Tokyo], 1951 (877.1974)

Werner Bischof (1916-1954), [Tea ceremony, Kyoto], 1952 (937.1974)

Werner Bischof (born on April 26, 1916 in Zürich, Switzerland and died on May 16, 1954, in a car accident near Trujillo, Peru, in the Andes) enjoyed a productive and fruitful time in Japan between 1951 and 1952, a country that he clearly loved; some of his photos made in Japan were published in a book called: Japan (1954). Perhaps the traditions and nascent modernization of post-war Japan offered a taste of nirvana for Bischof who had recently photographed famine in post-partition India and was currently documenting the poverty and displacement in the warring Koreas.

Kyoto, September 30th, 1951. Kyoto, Japan’s old and only undamaged city. What I have seen in the last days was so condensed it could fill a book. From the enchanting silver pavilion to the imaginary lake of moss and the moss waterfall, a wild garden that once belonged to japan’s most famous painter, hidden Buddhas overgrown with plants, little tea houses in enchanting landscapes and stone basins for washing hands […] a thousand wonders […]
The trees are exquisite in Japan. You know the poems that tell of the wind blowing through trees and the leaves.
In the centre of the capital, with its ever increasing bustle, I have discovered some tree shapes of breathtaking beauty and have drawn them for you. I cannot believe that these people will ever stop venerating nature, that a time will come when they no longer shelter trees and flowers in their houses as symbols of what is noble and pure. (W.B., letter to Rosellina [his wife].)
Werner Bischof, 1916-1954, Edited by Marco Bischof and Rene Buri, 1990

Erich Hartmann, Werner Bischof, New York, 1954 (icp.3729)

La Colonne brulée de Constantin

Pascal J. Sébah (1823–1886), La Colonne brulée de Constantin, ca. 1880 (676.2002)

The Column of Constantine was built in 328 by Emperor Constantine. Standing over 100 feet tall, it was initially topped with a statue of a standing Apollo with the face of Constantine wearing a crown with seven rays. A devastating fire in 1779 gave the column its’ common name, the burnt column. It has survived numerous natural disasters, storms, political and religious changes.

Pascal J. Sébah, a photographer of Armenian descent, opened his studio, prolific and successful, in 1857 in Constantinople (Istanbul). The studio was in operation until 1952.
April 24, 1915 is the day when the Ottoman Empire began its genocide against the Armenian people by arresting hundreds of Armenian and Christian intellectuals and leaders in Constantinople. They were later executed. An estimated 1.5 million Armenians were killed between 1915 and 1922.

The burnt column, Apollo-less, perhaps a perch for pigeons and pedestrian, still stands. (In a byzantine turn of events, a recently discovered photo of a telegram, written in secret code by Ottoman officials in 1915, photographed in an inaccessible archive by an Armenian monk in the 1940s, may provide evidence of government knowledge of the genocide. In the coded telegram the Ottoman officials were “asking for details about the deportations and killings of Armenians in eastern Anatolia.” (NY Times)

References:
New York Times
Wikipedia
Turkey-Culture
Public Domain Review
Fansinaflashbulb

Google Street View, La Colonne brulée de Constantin, 2014-2017