A Century of American Photography
The exhibition, curated and opened by Alexander Moore, Creative Producer at the Gallery, depicts the evolution of American cities and their people in the 20th century. It wasn’t all Hollywood glamour, huge, chrome-covered automobiles, and Broadway’s neon lights. There were the people building those cities, people escaping to those cities, and those left behind in those cities as the 20th century careered inexorably onwards, writes Michael Holland.
Moore has delved deep into Norway’s DNB Saving Bank Foundation’s collection to create an exhibition that shows how many people survived in the cities of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Francisco – the homeless sleeping in cars and under bridges, people queueing forlornly at the soup kitchen, the poor separated from the rich by the decks on a ship…
Some of the photos are out of focus, the light is bad, you have to squint to make out what’s actually happening in the image, they’re not all framed or cropped perfectly, but this exhibition is not about technical prowess, it’s about telling a story through the people, and not the famous or its fantastic architecture. This is about people trying to make a living – or die trying – knowing they would never get rich. As Jennifer Scott said: ‘The spirit, aspiration, and reality of the 20th Century are captured in these photographs.’
What is noticeable is the lack of celebrity. John F. Kennedy is in there, but shot from the back. Jazz musician John Coltrane can be seen in the reflection of a mirror. All else is the madness and mayhem of city living: nondescript car parks, an overabundance of advertising, pointless portraits of nobodies, exteriors of homes… Photos that tell us nothing and everything.
They do, however, echo back our own experience of living our lives in London. The blank stare of someone on a much-needed work break, innocent children playing street games with the smiles that will fade as they get older, murder victims with their own blank stare, who will never grow older.
For me, the end room was the most relatable. Bruce Davidson’s Subway images, taken over five years in the early 80s, while riding New York’s dire and dirty subway, while taking photos of the passengers. Right there is everything you need to know about New York City. Women dressed up for the night. Men sleeping on the way home after a hard day, old graffiti that is never cleaned away, those not sure if they are being photographed and others posing for the camera. Even one of a man with a gun at another man’s head. What, though, was most telling, was the teenage gang staring at the camera. They looked like they had just been in a fight and would welcome more. One angry-faced youth made a fist to show his HATE tattoo, inked over four fingers. Another wore a German SS badge with no shame. That group portrayed a world of no hope. At least not for them. Another image showed two Guardian Angels, the volunteers who rode the trains as security to throw some light into the subterranean darkness. They also confirmed the state of a city that needs the population to police themselves.
The great photographers are all there: Weegee, Dorothea Lange, Diane Arbus, Richard Avedon, Walker Evans and many, many more in this exhibition that has taken the hard-working and downtrodden of the 20th century and given them a little cultural dignity in the 21st, where they are seen with different eyes.
Every visitor will find something to enjoy, and leave with much to think about.
Dulwich Picture Gallery until October 4th.
Booking and full details: www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk
