The Atomic Age

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Frank. Charleston, South Carolina. 1955 - 56.
Frank, Robert. The Americans. SCALO Publishers, New York. 2000.

Quiz #4 Due
Worksheet #8 Due

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Historic Context
1929 - 1941
Great Depression
  
1933
Hitler's Nazi Party seizes power - end of the German Weimar Republic

German troops stand at attention during Nuremburg Rally in 1935
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Reichsparteitag_1935_mod.jpg
 
New Deal begins - program of government spending to end the Great Depression
  
1937
  
MOMA holds first exhibiton considering the history of photography
1938
  
Walker Evans is first photographer to be given a solo show at MOMA
1939 - 1945
World War II

German Bombers during Battle of Britain
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/Heinkel_He_111_during_the_Battle_of_Britain.jpg
1940
  
MOMA establishes first department of photography at a major museum and the museum's librarian, Beaumont Newhall becomes the new department's first director
1941
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor

Attack on Pearl Harbor.  December 7, 1941.
http://www.journaltimes.com/nucleus/media/1/20051206-pearl3.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Capa
1913 - 1954

 

"If your pictures aren't good enough you're not close enough" - Robert Capa

 

Normandy Invasion

Robert Capa. Normandy Invasion. June 6, 1944.
20th Century Photography Museum Ludwig Cologne. Taschen, Koln, 2005.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Falling Soldier

Robert Capa. Death of a Loyalist Soldier. 1936.
Rosenblum, Naomi. A World History of Photography. Abbeville Press, New York. 1989.

 

Web article on Robert Capa's Falling Soldier

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1946 Magnum Photos founded by Henri-Cartier Bresson, Robert Cappa and other photographers
 
First cooperative photo agency
Provided much desired control for the photographer over how their images were used

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hiroshima aftermath. 1945.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Hiroshima_aftermath.jpg

Victim of the Hiroshima nuclear bombing.  1945.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Gisei32.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bernard Waldman.  The Fat Man mushroom cloud resulting from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki.  August 9, 1945.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Nagasakibomb.jpg
Nagasaki before and after nuclear bombing. 1945.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Nagasaki_1945_-_Before_and_after_%28adjusted%29.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Joe Rosenthal.  Raising Old Glory at Iwo Jima.   February 23, 1945.
Marien, Mary Warner.  Photography: A Cultural History.  Second edition.  Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2006.

 

Flags of Our Fathers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cologne Cathedral after allied bombing
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/germany/cologne-cathedral-photos/wwii-bombing-cc-gordonr.jpg

Alfred Eisenstaedt.  V.J. Day.  1945.
Marien, Mary Warner.  Photography: A Cultural History.  Second edition.  Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2006.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lee Miller.  Buchenwald. April 1945. 
Marien, Mary Warner.  Photography: A Cultural History.  Second edition.  Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2006.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1945
First use of the Atomic Bomb at Hiroshima and Nagasaki
 
Founding of United Nations
  
1947
U.S. introduces Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe, Asia and the Soviet Union
Edward Steichen becomes MOMA's second department of photography director
Soviet forces refuse Marshall Plan funds when they determine they cannot control the terms of the aid

General MacArthur & Emperor Hirohito. 1945.
http://cidc.library.cornell.edu/dof/japan/images/hiro/mcarthur.jpg
1950 - 1953
Korean War - America combats the global expansion of Communism with inconclusive results
1950 - 1957
"McCarthy Era" - Senator Joseph McCarthy accuses hundreds of Americans of being Communists while the leader of the House Committee on Un-American Activities

Senator Joseph McCarthy. 1954.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Joseph_McCarthy.jpg
1952
Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man
1951
J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye
1954
William Golding's The Lord of the Flies
1955
The Family of Man Exhibition

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Family of Man
1955

 

The Family of Man

Wynn Bullock.
Steichen, Edward. The Family of Man. Museum of Modern Art, New York. 1955.

 

To "explain man to man" and to celebrate "the essential oneness of mankind throughout the world" - Steichen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Family of Man exhibition

Photographer Unknown.  The Family of Man Exhibition.  1955.
Steichen, Edward. The Family of Man. Museum of Modern Art, New York. 1955.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Child in the Forest

Wynn Bullock. Child in the Forest. 1951.
Steichen, Edward. The Family of Man. Museum of Modern Art, New York. 1955.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Peoplemontage

People photomontage.
Steichen, Edward. The Family of Man. Museum of Modern Art, New York. 1955.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Parents and children

Parents and children layout.
Steichen, Edward. The Family of Man. Museum of Modern Art, New York. 1955.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dead Soldier

Raphel Platnick.  Dead Soldier.
Steichen, Edward. The Family of Man. Museum of Modern Art, New York. 1955.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hygrogem Bomb

Photographer Unknown.  Atomic Cloud During Baker Day Blast at Bikini.  1946.
Marien, Mary Warner.  Photography: A Cultural History.  Second edition.  Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2006.

 

Who is the slayer?  Who the victim?  Speak.  - Sophocles

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

W. Eugene Smith

W. Eugene Smith.
Steichen, Edward. The Family of Man. Museum of Modern Art, New York. 1955.
“If Mr. Steichen’s well-intentioned spell doesn’t work, it can only be because he has been so intent on the physical similarities that unite ‘The Family of Man’ that he has neglected to conjure the intangible beliefs and preferences that divide men into countries and parties and clans.  And he has utterly forgotten that a family quarrel can be as fierce as any other kind.” – Phoebe Lou Adams