American Photography: A Century of Images

While it's initially curious that this nearly 3-hour survey of American photography starts at the turn of the century (omitting, among others, Matthew Brady's Civil War photos), the viewer soon becomes resigned to the fact that the organizing principles guiding the selection of photos here fall into two basic categories: 1) inscrutable and 2) serendipitous. Which is not to say that the chronologically arranged American Photography doesn't spotlight some of the most memorable photos of the century; from Walker Evan's expressive Depression-era pictures, and Gordon Parks' singular portrait of cleaning woman Ella Watson, to Joe Rosenthal's classic shot of the raising of the flag on Iwo Jima and the first color photograph of the whole Earth, the images parading across the screen are visual touchstones that remind us of times of triumph and tribulation in both the country at large and in our own lives. Interviews with an inordinate number of museum officials (more often discussing the rather dry topic of the changing attitudes of what is art and what ain't rather than the works themselves) are combined with mini-excursions into a potpourri of thematic groupings (war, celebrity, the Fifties, Native Americans, fashion photography). A few politically correct (but photographically mediocre) photo essays struck me as mathematical rather than artistic decisions, while the quality of the commentary ranges from the truly insightful to the truly insipid and silly (my favorite was the straight-faced assessment as "art" of one artist's decision to remove the text from a Marlboro ad, leaving only the image). So, a big C- for structure, but a solid B for the pictures, though it's hard to fathom the absolute absence of such noted photographers as Robert Mapplethorpe. A strong optional purchase. [Note to teachers: the program does contain graphic war and Holocaust imagery.] Aud: H, C, P. (R. Pitman)