Looking At Real Photographs In A Real Museum Exhibit; What Lessons Can Be Learned?

Dorothea Lange's "Migrant
Mother", 1936 (Library of Congress Collection)

Since the onset of my obsession with photography that began during the spring of 1970, I have taken advantage of almost every opportunity I have had to visit museums and photographic exhibitions for the purpose of viewing real photographs by some of the most important and iconic photographers of the 19th and 20th centuries.  Looking at "good" photographs was and is an essential part of my photographic education.  Recently, I visited the Muscarelle Museum of Art on the campus of the College of William and Mary (2nd oldest university in the United States) to view their current photography exhibit entitled: Lightworks: A Century of Great Photography.  The exhibit runs until April 10, 2016 and I found it worthwhile to visit.  At the bottom of this post I've copied and pasted their press release if you want more details about the exhibit.

I not only look at these photographs with a critical technical eye, I also look at them for their aesthetic value and, most importantly, the importance of the each photographs's content.  I always ask myself, "Why is this considered a good or great photograph?"

As I walked around very slowly and contemplated each of the prints in this exhibit, I was taken by how different most were as compared to images that are highly valued in today's photographic culture.  Today, we place high value on extreme sharpness, high contrast in black and white images, perfect focus, bright whites and deep shadows always with detail as well color images being very colorful, mostly with increased saturation.  I would generally say that most of the images we view are "lively" in nature.  Even images of the Milky Way are full of contrast, color and saturation.  Bright, full of contrast, colorful, etc.

Now, contrast (no pun intended!) that with what I saw in some of the most iconic and important images of the last photographic century.  I'll make some general statements about what I observed and then comment on some specific images that were in the exhibit.

In general, the iconic silver-based images of the past were printed with a much lower contrast.  Many of the images were printed darker that ones we see printed today. Many of the classic images have shadows that lack detail with highlights that were not bright white and lacked detail as well.  Many images were very grainy—digital noise, in today's jargon.  No glossy paper, all matte or soft gloss finished silver prints.  As far as sharpness, many of prints I viewed are anything but what we would call sharp today.  Those photographers we have revered missed focus in quite a few of the exhibited photographs, and many times (probably because of the nature of the materials and equipment) used shutter speeds a bit slow which resulted some movement from both camera and/or subjects.

I did notice that as one moved through the decades, the images, as a general observation, got sharper and contrastier as well as printed brighter.  One of the reasons, I'm sure, is better materials, sharper lenses and a faster recording medium.

This is a broad brush of generalizations.  There are examples of high contrast, sharp, detailed images as well, but they were in the minority of photographs I viewed.

Cartier-Bresson's Behind the
Gare St. Lazare, Paris, 1932

Specifically, I want to comment on a few of the images I saw. Cartier-Bresson's iconic image of the man jumping over the puddle, you know the one, the one that is commonly used to define Cartier-Bresson's term, "the decisive moment."  It is called "Behind the Gare St. Lazare, Paris, 1932."  The photograph is soft and a bit out of focus!  There is no shadow detail!  How could it be any good?  Didn't Cartier-Bresson know what he was doing? After all, he was one of the greatest photographers of the 20th century!  Dorothea Lange's photograph of the "Migrant Mother" (at the top of this post) is also quite soft when you look at an original hanging before you.  What gives?  How could these images be important or good if they lack perfection?  Edward Steichen's photograph entitled, "Steerage" is one of the most important and iconic images of the early 20th century.  It is also very soft, has very low contrast, the shutter speed used is too slow as there is much subject movement and it is printed way too dark!  All of these photographs and photographers must be way overrated!  


I would venture to say that many of the prints that are the icons of photography would not even get published today.  Too soft, not contrasty enough, too dark, etc.  They wouldn't measure up to today's technical requirements!

Edward Steichen's "The Steerage", 1907

So, what makes them important images?  One word. Content.  Period.  It is what is in the photograph that tells the story.  It is within the borders of the print that comments on social justice, the environment, the human condition, etc.  

In my opinion, today we place much too much emphasis on technique and technical excellence and not nearly enough emphasis on the content of images.  We also place much too much emphasis on gear.  I'm sure you can think back and, as you looked at an important image from a recent war or weather disaster or terrorist attack or images of human suffering that you either consciously or subconsciously examined the technical quality of the image as much or more so than the content.  Most photographers seem to "pixel peep."  I'll bet you have read critiques of images that reflect the best and worst of us as a human race and someone criticized the image because of some technical flaw—"there could have been more shadow detail, this would be a better image if the photographer hit the exact focus better or used a shutter speed that was a bit higher, etc."


My challenge to you is to forget about photographs being technically perfect and concentrate on the content of the images you see and make.  Does the image give you pause to think and reflect?  Does the image evoke an emotion in you?  Does the image provide meaning to some aspect of you or your like?  What does the image say to us?

My second challenge is for you to go to a museum or photographic exhibit of some of the iconic and important images of the 19th and 20th century—B.D., Before Digital, and really look at the images content first.  Then look at the technical aspects of the images to see that slightly out of focus, printed too dark, contrast too low, etc., really doesn't matter.

Some food for thought.


Thanks for looking. Enjoy! 

Dennis A. Mook 

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For Immediate Release

Media Contact: Betsy Moss | 804.355.1557 | betsymoss@verizon.net The Muscarelle Museum of Art Announces
Opening of Light Works: A Century of Great Photography Masterworks by Famous Photographers
from Ansel Adams to Andy Warhol Williamsburg, Va. (January 6, 2016) -- The Muscarelle Museum of Art is pleased to announce the opening of Light Works: A Century of Great Photography, a major loan exhibition, on Feb. 6, 2016.  Comprising more than fifty of the most memorable images of the past one hundred years, Light Works brings to the Muscarelle Museum of Art a breathtaking representation of the leading modern and contemporary photographers, including Alfred Stieglitz, Dorothea Lange, Ansel Adams, Berenice Abbott, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Diane Arbus, Richard Avedon, Cindy Sherman, among other greats. From Muybridge’s stop-action studies of animal locomotion of 1887, to Andy Warhol’s Polaroid snapshots of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s mother of 1984, and beyond to Andreas Gursky’s panoramic color landscape of Salerno (1990), Light Works reflectively surveys the origins, evolution and unexpected variations of photography during its first full century.
 Principal curator for Light Works is the noted photographer Gary Cialdella, who has drawn primarily from the pioneering collection that Cialdella once directed at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts.  The exhibition has been supplemented by more than ten photographs from the permanent collection of the Muscarelle Museum of Art, including works by Alfred Stieglitz, Eliot Porter, Yousuf Karsh, Clyde Butcher, James O’Mara, Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe, Tania Brassesco and Lazlo Passi Norberto. Visitors to the exhibition will be able to explore a walk-in camera obscura on the back lawn of the Museum.  Spearheaded by Eliot Dudik, visiting assistant professor of photography, and made possible through the efforts of a number of William & Mary departments and student volunteers, visitors can walk inside the hexagonal structure to experience the physics of light and the resulting refracted image.  The camera obscura will remain on view for the duration of the exhibition.
  “Photography is such an accessible medium, and Lights Works will appeal to a wide variety of audiences,” said Aaron De Groft, director and CEO of the Muscarelle. “Each one has its own particular story to tell, beginning with Julia Margaret Cameron’s albumen print Aurora: Goddess of Morning (1873) to Kim Kaufman’s 2000 print Dispersal. We are pleased to include in this exhibition important photographic works from our own collection and on loan from friends of the Muscarelle.”Early photography with its cumbersome box cameras and chemical developing solutions made photography seem more science than art and certainly out of reach of the masses. Modern and contemporary artists blurred the boundaries between photography and painting to the benefit of both. Today, digital photography is phenomenally accessible—it is the most democratic form of expression in modern life.  Unlike any other medium, photography in a multitude of forms, spans the disciplines from mass media marketing to documentary and news reporting, to artistic and highly personal pursuits.
 Light Works: A Century of Great Photography will be on view through April 10, 2016.
 About the Muscarelle Museum of ArtThe Muscarelle Museum of Art is located on the campus of William & Mary at 603 Jamestown Rd in Williamsburg, Va. For more information, call 757-221-2700 or visit muscarelle.org. Follow on Twitter (@Muscarelle), Instagram (@muscarellemuseum) or on Facebook (Muscarelle Museum of Art). Admission is $10 during this exhibition. Admission is free to members, William & Mary students, faculty and staff, as well as children under the age of 12.  ###