Physical Presence:
Photographs from the Collection
January 16-March 21, 2004

Featuring a range of work created by a variety of historical and contemporary artists, this exhibition presents the many lenses through which photographers have viewed the human figure. From literal representation to abstract form to object eliciting political and cultural debate, the photographs assembled here reflect our ever-changing notions of the body as well as changes in the medium of photography itself.

Photography's long relationship with the body begins with portraiture. Offering detailed likenesses of the sitter, nineteenth century studio portraits miraculously made absent loved ones present and exotic peoples accessible. Artists such as Thomas Eakins and Eadweard Muybridge further exploited the medium's status as purveyor of truth with figural depictions documenting human anatomy and movement. As photography began to be recognized as a fine art, many photographers moved away from these seemingly literal and objective representations to explore the body's potential as an aesthetic object. Modernist abstractions such as Andre Kertesz' distorted nudes or Walker Evans's closely-cropped image of hands place emphasis on the formal and expressive rather than factual potential of the body's mass. As smaller and lighter cameras became available, artists abandoned their studios to more directly engage with contemporary life. Navigating city streets and weaving through crowds, artists such as Lee Friedlander and Leon Levinstein created images that are as much a record of their own bodily movement as they are of the moment and people they document.

Dawoud Bey, Alva, 1992, color polaroid, © Addison Gallery of American Art

Using the body as a vehicle to explore issues of identity, gender, sexuality, and race, contemporary artists have moved beyond the reportorial and/or purely aesthetic to create more self-conscious images that question the truthfulness of photographs, the relationship between photographer and subject, and the ways we view ourselves and others. While reminiscent of Muybridge's scientifically grounded locomotion studies, Robert Mapplethorpe's four-part portrait of Thomas imbues the serial sequence of movement and form with erotic delight in the male nude. On the other hand, John Coplans presents his aging and imperfect body in startlingly bold and disquietingly objective self-portraits using a modernist aesthetic usually reserved for idealized female nudes. Sally Mann interjects her personal relationship with her subjects in documentary-like photographs that use posing, lighting and darkroom techniques to heighten the psychological and theatrical impact. Lorna Simpson also exposes the inherent subjectivity of photography in her word and image constructions that reveal the medium's complicity in creating and perpetuating stereotypes and reinforcing power structures. Such images remind us that even the seemingly most factual representations of the body carry layers of meaning and hidden intent.