Photography 1839-1937

Photography 1839-1937 exhibition, at MoMA, New York, a seminal event, securing for photography a place within the art museum and the modern fine-arts tradition in the USA. Organized by curator Beaumont Newhall, the 1937 exhibition survey of the medium's history arranged over 800 items according to technical processes (daguerreotypy, calotypy, etc.) and contemporary applications (e.g. press, astronomical, creative photography). After its inauguration in New York, an abridged version travelled to ten American cities. MoMA's exhibition and catalogue—although guided by European avant-garde interest in photographic practices—established a decidedly American orientation and institutionalized the ‘straight’ photographic style as modern art. The catalogue (now in its 5th edition) codified what Newhall saw as the ‘relationship of technique to visualization’ and established a canon that has shaped the course of photographic history.

— Wendy A. Grossman

Bibliography

• Newhall, B., The History of Photography (1937; 1982)