While meandering around the Internet last week I accidentally stumbled across a reference to a new photography exhibit at National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. Since I still have a few reasons left to go back and forth to our Nation’s capital I decided to take a drive down to see the show and take care of a few errands.

The show celebrated the merging of the NGA’s collection with that of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, which sadly ceased operations in 2014. As such, there was a good amount of Stieglitz (from the NGA) and Eadweard Muybridge (from the Corcoran) to be seen, as they formed the original foundations of the two institution’s holdings. The idea was to explore the connections between the collections, focusing on five common themes that the NGA identified in the work of the two greats — movement, sequence, narrative, studio, and identity. Works by other well-known photographers were also included.

I can’t say that it was one of my all time favorite shows – I’m sure my sadness over the now departed Corcoran had something to do with this – nevertheless it was well worth the trip from Pennsylvania to see it, as I left with several valuable takeaways.

An especially interesting theme of the show was that of narrative, where photographers combined words with their images – either hand written on the picture itself, underneath the picture area on a deliberately large white border, or completely outside of the framed picture but adjacent to it. This struck me, as I have long been a fan of photographs with accompanied text, such those by Wright Morris. The picture needs to be able to stand on its own, but some words can add useful and interesting insight into the photographer’s thought process and worldview.

Perhaps the single most stunning feature of the show for me were twenty-five black and white 4×5 contact prints by Minor White included in the sequence collection. These little jewels were portraits of two of his close friends coupled with pictures of favorite landscapes they had visited. Again, this strengthened my feeling about the power and ability of smaller prints to draw in the viewer – if, of course the images are powerful themselves.

So if you happen to be visiting our Nation’s capital, or need an excuse to do so, go ahead and make a stop at the National Gallery of Art. It’s free and a good example of our tax dollars well spent!

In my last entry, I mentioned what Michael A. Smith said at a recent lecture about the importance of using the entire space contained in the negative to good effect. Another significant point he made was the difference in how one sees vs. what one sees. This is an essential element in his working method, and it should be part of ours as well!

In a way, I touched on this a while back in my entry “More on Projects, Discovery and Not Getting Locked Into the Expected”. I talked about how much there is to see and capture if only we are open to it! That we often have something specific in mind when we go out to make pictures and how this can lock us into the expected and prevent us from unexpectedly making happy discoveries.

I believe Michael was referring to the mindset or philosophy one has to have when making a picture, because many of his images are about the nature of spatial and tonal relationships that are so important in black and white photography. In other words, how one sees vs. what one sees.

I am going to go out onto a limb and say that I think this fits into what I was talking about concerning being open to things, and so I am glad Michael and I are in agreement!!!!

Actually, what he says is a critical refinement. His is a thought process that seeks discovery of the elements that together make a great picture. Think composition. Think light. Think different tones from deepest black to glaring white. This is a vastly different approach than merely looking at something interesting and snapping the picture. While that may produce a good record of something, it is unlikely to satisfy.

In my opinion, this applies to whatever format you are using and whatever type of photography you are doing, including street, which can be pretty fast moving. Don’t believe me — go ahead and study the pictures of the great street and documentary photographers and compare them to the countless number posted daily on flickr, etc. I think you will see what I mean.