Exhibition dates: 11th November 2012 – 3rd February 2013
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Part 4 of the biggest posting on one exhibition that I have ever undertaken on Art Blart!
As befits the gravity of the subject matter this posting is so humongous that I have had to split it into 4 separate postings. This is how to research and stage a contemporary photography exhibition that fully explores its theme. The curators reviewed more than one million photographs in 17 countries, locating pictures in archives, military libraries, museums, private collections, historical societies and news agencies; in the personal files of photographers and service personnel; and at two annual photojournalism festivals producing an exhibition that features 26 sections (an inspired and thoughtful selection) that includes nearly 500 objects that illuminate all aspects of WAR/PHOTOGRAPHY.
I have spent hours researching and finding photographs on the Internet to support the posting. It has been a great learning experience and my admiration for photographers of all types has increased. I have discovered the photographs and stories of new image makers that I did not know and some enlightenment along the way. I despise war, I detest the state and the military that propagate it and I surely hate the power, the money and the ethics of big business that support such a disciplinarian structure for their own ends. I hope you meditate on the images in this monster posting, an exhibition on a subject matter that should be consigned to the history books of human evolution.
**Please be aware that there are graphic photographs in all of these postings.** Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
Marcus
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Many thankx to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston for allowing me to publish some of the photographs in the posting. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image.
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25. Photographs in the “Memorials” section range from the tomb of an unknown World War I soldier in England, by Horace Nicholls; and a landscape of black German crosses throughout a World War II burial site, by Bertrand Carrière; to an anonymous photograph of a reunion scene in Gettysburg of the opposing sides in the Civil War; and Joel Sternfeld’s picture of a woman and her daughter at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC, in 1986. (8 images)
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Horace Nicholls
The Unknown Warrior at Westminster Abbey, London, November 1920
1920
Silver gelatin print
© IWM (Q 31514)
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In order to commemorate the many soldiers with no known grave, it was decided to bury an ‘Unknown Warrior’ with all due ceremony in Westminster Abbey on Armistice Day in 1920. The photograph shows the coffin resting on a cloth in the nave of Westminster Abbey before the ceremony at the Cenotaph and its final burial.
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Anon
Under blue & gray – Gettysburg
July 1913
Photo shows the Gettysburg Reunion (the Great Reunion) of July 1913, which commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.
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Bertrand Carrière
Untitled
2005-2009
from the series Lieux Mêmes [Same Places]
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Joel Sternfeld American (born 1944)
Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Washington, D.C.,
May 1986
Chromogenic print, ed. #1/25 (printed October 1986)
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Target Collection of American Photography, gift of the artist
© 1986 Joel Sternfeld
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26. The last gallery in the exhibition is “Remembrance.“ Most of these images were taken by artists seeking to come to terms with a conflict after fighting had ceased. Included are Richard Avedon’s picture of a Vietnamese napalm victim; a survivor of a machete attack in a Rwandan death camp, by James Nachtwey; a 1986 portrait of a hero who rescued Jews during the Holocaust, by Houston native Gay Block; and Suzanne Opton’s 2004 portrait of a soldier who survived the Iraq War and returned to the United States to work as a police officer, only to be murdered on duty by a fellow veteran. The final wall features photographs by Simon Norfolk of sunrises at the five D-Day beaches in 2004. The only reference to war is the title of the series: The Normandy Beaches: We Are Making a New World. (33 images)
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Richard Avedon
Napalm Victim #1, Saigon, South Vietnam, April 29, 1971
1971
Silver gelatin print
© Richard Avedon
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Gay Block American, b.1942
Zofia Baniecka, Poland
1986
From the series Rescuers: Portraits of Moral Courage in the Holocaust, a record of non-Jewish citizens from European countries who risked their lives helping to hide Jews from the Nazis
Chromogenic print, printed 1994
Courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, gift of Clinton T. Wilour in honour of Eve France
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Zofia Baniecka (born 1917 in Warsaw - 1993) was a Polish member of the Resistance during World War II. In addition to relaying guns and other materials to resistance fighters, Baniecka and her mother rescued over 50 Jews in their home between 1941 and 1944.
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James Nachtwey
A Hutu man who did not support the genocide had been imprisoned in the concentration camp, was starved and attacked with machetes. He managed to survive after he was freed and was placed in the care of the Red Cross, Rwanda, 1994
1994
Silver gelatin print
© James Nachtwey / TIME
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Simon Norfolk British (born Nigeria, 1963)
Sword Beach
2004
from the series The Normandy Beaches: We Are Making a New World
Chromogenic print, ed. #1/10 (printed 2006)
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, gift of Bari and David Fishel, Brooke and Dan Feather and Hayley Herzstein in honor of Max Herzstein and a partial gift of the artist and Gallery Luisotti, Santa Monica
© Simon Norfolk / Gallery Luisotti
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Other photographs from the exhibition
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Matsumoto Eiichi Japanese, 1915-2004
Shadow of a soldier remaining on the wooden wall of the Nagasaki military headquarters (Minami-Yamate machi, 4.5km from Ground Zero)
1945
Gelatin silver print
Collection of the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography
© Matsumoto Eiichi
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Gilles Caron French, 1939-1970
Young Catholic demonstrator on Londonderry Wall, Northern Ireland
1969
Gelatin silver print
Courtesy of Foundation Gilles Caron and Contact Press Images
© Gilles Caron
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Alexander Gardner American, 1821-1882
The Home of a Rebel Sharpshooter / Dead Confederate soldier in the devil’s den, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
July 1863
Albumen paper print copied from glass, wet collodion negative
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
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Ziv Koren Israeli, b.1970
A sniper’s-eye view of Rafah, in the Southern Gaza strip, during an Israeli military sweep
2006
Inkjet print, printed 2012
© Ziv Koren/Polaris Images
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David Leeson American, b.1957
Death of a Soldier, Iraq
March 24, 2003
Inkjet print, printed 2012
Courtesy of the artist
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August Sander German, 1876-1964
Soldier
c. 1940
Gelatin silver print, printed by Gunther Sander, 1960s
The MFAH, gift of John S. and Nancy Nolan Parsley in honour of the 65th birthday of Anne Wilkes Tucker
© Die Photographische Sammlung/SK StiftungKultur – August Sander Archiv, Cologne; DACS, London 2012
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Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
1001 Bissonnet Street
Houston, TX 77005
Opening hours:
Tuesday, Wednesday 10.00 am – 5.00 pm
Thursday 10.00 am – 9.00 pm
Friday, Saturday 10.00 am – 7.00 pm
Sunday 12.15 pm – 7.00 pm
Closed Monday, except Monday holidays
Closed Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day
Filed under: American, american photographers, beauty, black and white photography, colour photography, digital photography, documentary photography, English artist, exhibition, existence, gallery website, landscape, light, London, memory, photographic series, photography, photojournalism, pictorialism, portrait, psychological, reality, space, time Tagged: 50th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, A Hutu man who did not support the genocide, A sniper’s-eye view of Rafah, Alexander Gardner, Alexander Gardner Dead Confederate soldier in the devil's den, Alexander Gardner The Home of a Rebel Sharpshooter, Anon Under blue & gray, armed conflict, Armed Conflict and Its Aftermath, Armistice Day, atomic bomb, August Sander, August Sander Soldier, Battle of Gettysburg, Bertrand Carrière, Bertrand Carrière Lieux Mêmes, Bertrand Carrière Untitled, Cenotaph, David Leeson, David Leeson Death of a Soldier, dead Confederate soldier, Dead Confederate soldier in the devil's den, dead soldier, death, destruction, Devil's Den, English photographer, English photography, Fascism, french artist, French photographer, French photography, Gay Block, Gay Block Rescuers: Portraits of Moral Courage in the Holocaust, Gay Block Zofia Baniecka, genocide, german photographer, German photography, German soldier, Gettysburg, Gettysburg Reunion, Gilles Caron, Gilles Caron Young Catholic demonstrator on Londonderry Wall, grief, Ground Zero, hiding Jews from the Nazis, Holocaust, Horace Nicholls, Horace Nicholls The Unknown Warrior at Westminster Abbey, Houston, Images of Armed Conflict and Its Aftermath, iraq, James Nachtwey, James Nachtwey A Hutu man who did not support the genocide, Japanese artist, japanese photographer, Japanese photography, Joel Sternfeld, Joel Sternfeld Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Londonderry, Matsumoto Eiichi, Matsumoto Eiichi Shadow of a soldier remaining on the wooden wall of the Nagasaki military headquarters, Memorials, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Nagasaki, Napalm Victim #1, Northern Ireland, nuclear explosion, Pennsylvania, Poland, Polish World War II Resistance fighter, Rebel Sharpshooter, Red Cross, remembrance, Richard Avedon, Richard Avedon Napalm Victim #1, Rwanda, Saigon, Shadow of a soldier remaining on the wooden wall, Shadow of a soldier remaining on the wooden wall of the Nagasaki military headquarters, sharpshooter, Simon Norfolk, Simon Norfolk Sword Beach, Simon Norfolk The Normandy Beaches, sniper, soldier, soldiers, South Vietnam, Southern Gaza strip, Sword Beach, the Great Reunion, The Home of a Rebel Sharpshooter, The Normandy Beaches, the resistance, The Unknown Warrior at Westminster Abbey, Under blue & gray - Gettysburg, Unknown Warrior, Unknown Warrior Westminster Abbey, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, war, war photographer, war photography, WAR/PHOTOGRAPHY, WAR/PHOTOGRAPHY: Images of Armed Conflict and Its Aftermath, washington, Westminster Abbey, World War II, Ziv Koren, Ziv Koren A sniper’s-eye view of Rafah, Zofia Baniecka
