Public Eye: 175 Years of Sharing Photography
- aurel53
- Mar 24, 2015
- 2 min read
The lions sit in front of the most photographed and visited library in the country. These pictures have been shared with friends and family. Today, more than ever we share almost every aspect of our lives on social media. The new exhibition at the library based on the sharing of photographs from the inception of photography to today.
For the next several months, there is a unique photographic exhibition of some of the most famous photographers of all time. It is hard to imagine almost one hundred and seventy-five years ago the announcement of a new medium, photography. The docent began with an ambrotype of a man taken in 1861-62. Then we looked at glass plates. We viewed numerous photographs of well-known artists, the manner of sharing them during their time and finally we ended with Google maps.
I was amazed at Eadweard Muybridge, panoramic view of San Francisco. It encompassed a 360 degree view of the city. Seeing what SF looked before the 1906 earthquake was incredible, it did not have skyscraper and the tallest buildings were the steeples of churches. Another set of pictures that took my breath away were those of Edward S. Curtis. The portraits of American Indians captured a depth of emotions in each face. Learning that J.P. Morgan subsidized him for this series of pictures and that Mr. Morgan gave it to our library was also astonishing. We viewed pictures of Alice Austen. She captured the New York immigrant experience when life was a hardship for many of them. Her home in Staten Island is a house museum where you get to check out the 50 lbs. equipment she had to carry across the New York Harbor, view a video of her life and see many of her pictures.
When I visited Yosemite, I was able to see many of Ansel Adams of this beautiful location. There are a couple of his masterpieces on exhibition here. The docent talked to us about the club that many of these photographers had formed, the f/64. It included Henry Swift, Edward Weston and a number of other well known photographers.
If you love to take pictures, sharing them, check out this exhibit to see how photos have were shared for the past 175 years. If you have been to the exhibit, share your thoughts on it with us.
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