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Indepth Arts News:
"An American Century of Photography: From Dry-Plate to Digital,
The Hallmark Photographic Collection"
2000-10-14 until 2001-01-07
Joslyn Art Museum
Omaha, NE,
USA United States of America
This survey of 242 vintage photographic prints — from the mid-1880s to the present — provides a broad
perspective on the art and history of modern American photography. The works featured in An American
Century of Photography are drawn entirely from The Hallmark Photographic Collection, one of the most
renowned holdings of its kind in the world.
Local support for this exhibition has been made possible in part by the ConAgra Foundation. By about 1890, the
art and impact of photography in American culture had been transformed by several important developments: the
replacement of the earlier wet-collodion process with the less-cumbersome dry-plate and roll-film technologies; the
introduction of the hand camera; the rise of serious amateur photography; and the widespread reproduction of
photographs in magazines and newspapers. These changes greatly increased the medium’s applications and made
it even more integral to American life. Now, the camera-generated image is again undergoing transformation
through the impact of electronic imaging systems and the computer. An American Century of Photography
celebrates the thematic and artistic riches of photography during its most inventive and influential century — the
era between those monumental technological shifts.
The exhibition presents a mixture of both famous and little-known artists and works. It encourages a richer
understanding of photography’s history by juxtaposing iconic pictures, such as Edward Weston’s Pepper No.
30 (1930), with works by artists with whom audiences may not be acquainted and with exceptional but
less-familiar images by well-known artists. While the exhibition focuses on American themes and subjects, it also
includes prints by leading Europeans, such as André Kertész and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, who emigrated to the
United States in the 1930s.
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