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Amelia C. Van Buren with a Cat
c. 1893-1897. Platinum print. | 3 3/8 × 5 5/16 inches (8.6 × 13.5 cm)
Gift of Seymour Adelman, 1968-203-2
This photograph was originally attributed to Van Buren’s mentor, the painter and photographer Thomas Eakins. However, several clues suggest that it is in fact a self-portrait made by Van Buren in her studio. A distinctive cord, seen curling above her left arm, resembles the tube of a pneumatic shutter release. Such a device used air pressure to operate the shutter from afar, eliminating the need to have someone behind the camera.(AB)
Cigarette Girl - Idea for a Poster
1897. Gum bichromate print. | 9 3/16 × 6 11/16 inches (23.3 × 17 cm)
From the Collection of Dorothy Norman, 1967-285-230
Demachy, a French amateur photographer, spent years experimenting with and perfecting the gum bichromate process. This elegant print, quite likely given to Dorothy Norman by Alfred Stieglitz, is perhaps the very print Stieglitz reproduced as a halftone in his journal, Camera Notes, in 1902. Norman--a photographer, writer, activist and art collector--founded our photography program in 1968 when she and PMA Director Evan Turner established the Alfred Stieglitz Center here. (PB)
White Fence, Port Kent, New York
1916 (negative); 1945 (print). Gelatin silver print. | 9 5/8 × 12 13/16 inches (24.5 × 32.5 cm)
The Paul Strand Retrospective Collection, 1915-1975, gift of the estate of Paul Strand, 1980-21-5
White Fence is an iconic work of modern art. Strand combined his experiments with Cubism—seen in the photograph’s strong formal structure and its everyday subject matter—with his deep interest in small-town life, which remained a key subject throughout his life. The result is a simple yet profound work about the American landscape and the boundaries that put us inside or outside of any given place. This print of the image is unique and very special: Strand made it in preparation for his 1945 solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, using a large negative he made in 1916, presumably for platinum prints that have not survived. Strand later damaged that negative, and this is likely one of only two prints that remain from it. PMA holds the world’s most important collection of Strand’s work, numbering almost 4,000 photographs, including masterpiece prints from every phase of his long career. (PB)
Untitled
c. 1915. Gelatin silver print. | 5 1/2 × 3 7/8 inches (14 × 9.8 cm)
Purchased with funds contributed by Peter C. Bunnell, 2019-58-1
The Willow
1919. Gum-palladium print. | 7 11/16 × 9 1/8 inches (19.5 × 23.2 cm)
Purchased with funds contributed by Focus: Friends of Photography, 2017-242-1
This gum palladium print is our only work by Gilpin, one of the great photographers of the American west. It is a recent acquisition funded by our affinity group, Focus, whose members help us acquire a major work every year. (PB)
Trianon
1926. Matte albumen silver print. | 9 × 7 inches (22.8 × 17.8 cm)
Purchased with the Lola Downin Peck Fund, the Alice Newton Osborn Fund, other Museum funds, and with the partial gift of Eric W. Strom, 2004-110-28
Equivalent, Series XX No. 9
1929 (negative); 1932 (print). Gelatin silver print. | 4 5/8 × 3 5/8 inches (11.7 × 9.2 cm)
From the Collection of Dorothy Norman, 1967-285-14
PMA’s collection boasts some 600 prints by Stieglitz, including a gift from Georgia O’Keeffe in 1949. The majority of the prints, however, are from Dorothy Norman’s collection, which features important groups of Stieglitz’s Equivalents and views of New York City from his apartment in the Shelton Hotel. (PB)
Los obstáculos (The Obstacles)
1929. Gelatin silver print. | 7 7/16 x 8 7/8 inches (18.9 x 22.6 cm)
125th Anniversary Acquisition. The Lynne and Harold Honickman Gift of the Julien Levy Collection, 2001-62-25
Bravo's photograph of carousel horses bucking and leaping underneath their protective tarp surely appealed to Julien Levy's surrealist sensibilities. This photograph is from a group of stunning exhibition prints by the famed Mexican modernist that Levy showed at his gallery in the 1930s and which came to the museum in 2001 as part of Levy's personal collection and archive. (SE)
Frida Kahlo (Strip of Two Contact Prints)
1938. Gelatin silver print. | 3 1/16 × 1 7/16 inches (7.7 × 3.6 cm) | 3 1/16 × 1 5/16 inches (7.8 × 3.4 cm) | 3 × 1 3/8 inches (7.6 × 3.5 cm)
125th Anniversary Acquisition. The Lynne and Harold Honickman Gift of the Julien Levy Collection, 2001-62-620
There is something especially intimate about watching an iconic figure such as Frida Kahlo tend to her hair. Levy’s candid portraits of the artist participating in the human experiences of undressing, undoing hair, and unwinding allows us as viewers to engage with Kahlo in a remarkably personal way. We decided to include these small contact prints because they are quite unlike better-known portraits of Kahlo and they are rarely on view in our galleries, because of their diminutive size. (LI)
Tara and Rita Pandit, New York
1944. Gelatin silver print. | 2 3/8 × 3 3/4 inches (6 × 9.5 cm)
From the Collection of Dorothy Norman, 1980-89-49
Norman, a Philadelphia native, spent her adult life in New York City. She learned photography from her close companion Alfred Stieglitz, whose acquaintance she made at his gallery, An American Place. She particularly excelled at portraiture, and produced intimate and striking images of those in her artistic and political coterie. Here, Tara and Rita Pandit, two nieces of Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, confidently meet the camera’s gaze. Norman met the teenaged sisters through her work with the India League, an organization that advocated for India’s independence from Great Britain.(AB)
Trolley, New Orleans
1955 (negative); 1960s (print). Gelatin silver print. | 12 5/16 x 18 13/16 inches (31.2 x 47.8 cm)
Purchased with funds contributed by Dorothy Norman, 1969-195-55
In 1969 Dorothy Norman supported the museum’s purchase of 44 Robert Frank photographs, including 37 large-format prints from The Americans. Frank’s large prints from this moment have come to be among those most prized by collectors of his work, and our group is among the treasures of the photography collection. (PB)
Billie Holiday and Hazel Scott at a Party
1957 (negative); before 1999 (print). Gelatin silver print. | 9 15/16 × 12 13/16 inches (25.3 × 32.6 cm)
Purchased with funds contributed by Focus: Friends of Photography, 2018-203-1
African American photographer DeCarava spent his career engaging in the Harlem jazz scene, daily life in New York City, and the Civil Rights movement. Here he captures jazz singer Billie Holiday and pianist and singer Hazel Scott sharing a performance in a private home. The single light source illuminating their faces, the sheets of music, and the piano keys illustrates one remarkable moment giving us a glimpse into Harlem’s history of pioneering music. (LI)
Composites: Sailors, Philadelphia
1964. Gelatin silver prints. | 12 3/4 × 12 13/16 inches (32.4 × 32.6 cm)
Purchased with the Contemporary Photography Exhibition Fund, the Alfred Stieglitz Center Restricted Fund, and the Alice Newton Osborn Fund, 1977-73-3
October 15
1969. Orthochromatic film with acrylic paint. | 14 × 20 1/16 inches (35.5 × 51 cm)
Purchased with the Julius Bloch Memorial Fund Created by Benjamin D. Bernstein, 2018-94-1
Blondeau was an innovative photographer and teacher whose career was tragically cut short at the age of 36. Her depiction of Philadelphia’s Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam--a day of nationwide protests in 1969--beautifully illustrates her experimental approach to photography. Blondeau transformed her documentary picture by printing it on high-contrast transparent film before highlighting the protestors' faces—and a loyal canine companion—with white acrylic paint. (SE)
Untitled
1971. Dye transfer print. | 12 7/16 x 18 7/16 inches (31.6 x 46.8 cm)
125th Anniversary Acquisition. Gift of Walter Hopps and Caroline Huber, 2001-216-4
Erimo Cape, from the series Ravens
1976. Gelatin silver print. | 11 15/16 × 17 3/8 inches (30.3 × 44.2 cm)
Purchased with funds contributed by the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, 1990-51-2
In 1986, curator Michael Hoffman organized the exhibition Black Sun: The Eyes of Four, featuring work by the great Japanese photographers Masahise Fukase, Eikoh Hosoe, Daido Moriyama and Shomei Tomatsu. The museum acquired important prints by all four artists, including 21 photographs from Fukase’s iconic series, The Ravens. This stark silhouette of a single bird is among the most haunting pictures in the group. (PB)
Seth
1985-86. Gelatin silver print, hand-colored . | 15 1/8 × 17 15/16 inches (38.4 × 45.5 cm)
Gift of the artist, 2016-30-62
This is one of Lebe’s most elaborately hand-colored prints. The meticulous decoration conveys a sense of loving attentiveness to the body of his subject, not unlike the figurative light drawings for which he is better known. Lebe, like Keith Smith, is an under-appreciated artist who began working in the 1970s and to whom we devoted a solo exhibition, in 2019. Both artists take an experimental approach to the medium while also exploring issues of queer identity and experience. Much remains to be learned about queer photographers working in the 1970s-1990s, and we are pleased to throw a spotlight on these two exceptional artists. (PB)
Book Number 141
May 1989. Artist’s book with cut gelatin silver print, colored ink and watercolor washes, graphite, and machine stitching. | 38 × 38 inches (96.5 × 96.5 cm) [open]
Purchased with funds contributed by Richard L. and Ronay Menschel, Marion Miller, The Paul & Emily Singer Family Foundation, Peter C. Bunnell, and Trevor Drake and Anne Albright, and with the Lynne and Harold Honickman Fund for Photography, 2015-51-1
Smith, the subject of a solo exhibition at PMA in 2018, is a prolific artist who has quietly produced over 300 unique artist’s books since the 1960s. This example is a one-picture book, made from a photo mural print of his friend’s torso. Smith hand colored the print, then cut and folded it in the snake format, a bookbinding technique devised by the artist’s husband, Scott McCarney. Also called boustrophedon, Greek for “as the ox plows,” it describes the journey as the pages unfold back and forth, row by row from a concise, square stack, to eventually form a meter-square image. Typically this book would be displayed flat on a low table, but in this imagined virtual space it is presented on a wall. (AB)
Untitled #204, from the series History Portraits
1989 (negative); 2014 (print). Chromogenic print. | 60 3/8 × 43 7/8 inches (153.4 × 111.4 cm)
Gift of the Arons Family Foundation in memory of Edna S. Beron, 2014-116-1
Guardian, Wisconsin, from the series Songs of the Sea
1991. Gelatin silver print. | 3 9/16 × 4 5/8 inches (9 × 11.7 cm)
Gift of Ray K. Metzker and Ruth Thorne-Thomsen, 2013-150-125
Untitled, from the Kitchen Table Series
1990 (negative); 2011 (print). Gelatin silver prints. | each 27 1/4 x 27 1/4 inches (69.2 x 69.2 cm)
Gift of Marion Boulton Stroud, 2011-194-2a--c
Lady and Child, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from the August Wilson series
1991 (negative); 1998 (print). Gelatin silver print. | 19 1/8 × 13 3/8 inches (48.5 × 34 cm)
Purchased with funds contributed by David and Julia Fleischner, 2017-67-1
Untitled, Mekong Delta
1995. Gelatin silver print. | 16 3/16 × 22 13/16 inches (41.1 × 57.9 cm)
Purchased with funds contributed by the Friends of the Alfred Stieglitz Center, 2012-182-1
Vues de dos (View of Backs)
2001. Gelatin silver print, mounted with cardboard, tape, and painted glass (2004). | 16 7/8 x 13 inches (42.9 x 33 cm)
Gift of the Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, 2004-54-1
Untitled, from the series Lagos, All Roads
2003. Gelatin silver print. | 19 × 18 3/4 inches (48.2 × 47.7 cm)
Purchased with funds contributed by the Committee on Prints, Drawings, and Photographs, Lynne and Harold Honickman, and James D. Crawford and Judith N. Dean, 2017-71-2
Contemporary African photography is an incredibly vibrant and diverse field, and has become one focus of our collecting. Akinbiyi, a respected mentor to many artists, has produced a profound body of work over the past forty years, often making extended series about cities. In 2016 our department organized the exhibition Three Photographers/Six Cities, which brought together several of his projects with others by Ananias Léki-Dago and Seydou Camara, both of whose work is also included in this presentation. (PB)
Clemency
2003. Chromogenic print. | 22 7/16 × 18 inches (57 × 45.7 cm)
Gift of Lee Marks and John C. DePrez, Jr., Shelbyville, Indiana, 2018-138-1
Vanessa, Philadelphia
2006 (negative); 2011 (print). Inkjet print. | 20 x 30 inches (50.8 x 76.2 cm)
Gift of the artist and purchased with funds contributed by the Women’s Committee of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Julius Bloch Memorial Fund created by Benjamin D. Bernstein, 2011-86-138
To represent our city in its entirety, we actively collect photographs that show Philadelphia’s myriad experiences, livelihoods, perspectives, and histories. Featured in this exhibition are works that explore the figure and individual identities while also portraying Philadelphian microcosms. In addition to this photograph by Strauss, those by Amelia Van Buren, Ray K. Metzker, Barbara Blondeau, David Lebe and Ruth Thorne-Thomsen were all made in Philadelphia. The vibrancy, experimentation and diversity in these works are a key feature of the Philadelphian experience. (LI)
The Valley, from the series Double Life
2006. Chromogenic print. | 36 × 48 inches (91.4 × 121.9 cm)
Purchased with funds contributed by Nancy Lassalle, 2012-69-1
Untitled
2014. Pigment print. | 27 3/4 × 27 3/4 inches (70.5 × 70.5 cm)
Purchased with funds contributed by Richard L. and Ronay Menschel and Marion Miller, 2018-149-1
Untitled, from the series Manuscripts of Tombouctou
2009. Inkjet print. | 13 5/8 × 18 1/8 inches (34.6 × 46 cm)
Purchased with funds contributed by the Committee on Prints, Drawings, and Photographs, Lynne and Harold Honickman, and James D. Crawford and Judith N. Dean, 2017-72-2
CBD, Johannesburg, from the series Shebeen Blues
2007 (negative); 2015 (print). Gelatin silver print. | 14 5/8 × 22 5/16 inches (37.1 × 56.6 cm)
Purchased with funds contributed by the Committee on Prints, Drawings, and Photographs, Lynne and Harold Honickman, and James D. Crawford and Judith N. Dean, 2017-70-1
Moon Watch, from the series Available Light
2012. Fuji Crystal Archive prints, mounted and laminated with lacquer frames (2015). | 41 1/16 × 62 1/8 × 1 15/16 inches (104.3 × 157.8 × 4.9 cm)
Purchased with the Lola Downin Peck Fund, 2016-43-1
