Three American Photographers, Block Museum, Northwestern University

Three American Photographers

This year the Block is proud to present Three American Photographers: In Depth, a series of educational programs focusing on John Swope, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Gordon Parks.

Below you’ll find more information about these photographers and the exhibitions of their work at the Block Museum, as well as details about the programs exploring their photography in depth, some of which will be available as podcasts.

The Photographers

John Swope

John Swope, Near Tokyo, Omori POW Camp, ca. September 2, 1945, gelatin silver print. John Swope Collection, © John Swope Trust.

Click on the picture for a slideshow. (Requires Adobe Flash Player)

Before joining the military in 1941, John Swope (1908–79) worked as a photographer in Hollywood, shooting everyone from the stars (including his friends Henry Fonda and Jimmy Stewart) to the extras and behind-the-scenes crew members. In 1939 Swope published Camera Over Hollywood, a collection of his photographs coupled with often humorous narrative captions.

As the United States entered World War II Swope became a flight instructor in the Army Air Corps Reserve, an experience which led to a collaboration with the writer John Steinbeck — Bombs Away: The Story of a Bomber Team, a 1942 book about basic training in the Army Air Corps. Three years later Swope joined a U.S. Naval Reserve unit charged with promoting the Navy’s war effort through photography. Led by Edward Streichen, the team included the photographer Wayne Miller, who probably acted as one of Swope’s teachers during training. For his first assignment, Swope photographed an overseas military flight from Maryland to Paris in June of 1945.

A few months later as the war in the Pacific came to an end, Swope traveled to Japan to document the release of Allied prisoners of wars. Despite orders against fraternization, Swope also sought out, spoke with, and took pictures of Japan’s war-weary citizens during his three-week journey through the country. He preferred to photograph people up close, using natural or existing light almost exclusively. His military-issued Rolleiflex camera — which was held at waist-level, leaving the cameraman’s face unhidden — facilitated Swope’s desire to get as near as possible to his subjects.

Swope composed a letter to his wife, actress Dorothy McGuire, during his trip, fleshing out in words the stories his photographs told. Excerpts from the letter, which Swope had hoped to publish with his pictures, were presented alongside the photos in the exhibition A Letter from Japan: The Photographs of John Swope. The exhibition was on view in the Block Museum’s Main Gallery through September 26 to November 30, 2008.

Robert Mapplethorpe

Click on the picture for a slideshow. (Requires Adobe Flash Player)

Robert Mapplethorpe (1946–89) was one of the most renowned and controversial photographers of the 20th century. He is known for his classically-inspired images of nudes (often in sexually explicit poses), floral still lifes, and portraits of artists and celebrities.

Mapplethorpe grew up in suburban New York and enrolled at Brooklyn’s Pratt Institute in 1963. During the six years Mapplethorpe spent studying at Pratt he was exposed to and participated in the social and cultural revolutions sweeping the country, changing his major from the more conventional advertising design to graphic arts, experimenting with drugs, and exploring his sexuality.

Mapplethorpe had not shown an interest in photography before starting to use a Polaroid camera in 1970, although he had appropriated images from pornographic magazines for collages. During the next five years he would shoot some 1,500 instant photographs, exploring the subjects that would dominate his later work: portraiture, flowers, the classical beauty of the human body, and sexuality. Mapplethorpe’s Polaroids are marked by a spontaneity that is inherent to instant photography and unlike the carefully composed images of the photographer’s later pictures. More than 90 photographs from this developmental period are included in the exhibition Polaroids: Mapplethorpe, on view in the Block Museum’s Alsdorf Gallery January 13 to April 5, 2009.

In 1975 Mapplethorpe acquired a Hasselblad 2 1/4-inch camera, capping off his Polaroid period, although he would continue to utilize instant photography to test lighting conditions and compositions. The Hasselblad, a model often used by studio photographers, offered greater resolution, clarity, and quality. As Mapplethorpe took to studio photography, his images became more controlled and refined. In 1977 Mapplethorpe had his first critically acclaimed and commercially successful exhibitions in New York, marking the beginning of his career as an internationally celebrated artist. By the 1980s he had fully established his mature style, as seen in the photograph Lee Leigh, which can be viewed in our slide show.

Mapplethorpe died of complications from AIDS in 1989.

Gordon Parks

Click on the picture for a slideshow. (Requires Adobe Flash Player)

Novelist, poet, composer, and musician Gordon Parks (1912–2006) is perhaps best known for his documentary photographs in Life magazine and for directing the pioneering black action film Shaft. His photographs capture the American experience in the second half of the twentieth century: from rural and urban poverty, racism, and social change to heroes, leaders, and cultural icons like Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, and Leonard Bernstein.

Parks began shooting pictures professionally in the 1930s. He became enamored of the medium while studying the photographs in magazines left behind by passengers of the Pullman trains on which he labored as a waiter. Early work as a fashion photographer led Parks to Chicago, which was experiencing a cultural and artistic Renaissance similar to that of Harlem’s in the 1920s. A well-received exhibition of his photographs at the South Side Community Art Center in 1941 won Parks a fellowship, allowing him to join the federal government’s Farm Security Administration (FSA), which sent photographers all over the country to document poverty and build support for New Deal programs. It was during his first FSA assignment that Parks took one of his most recognized photographs — American Gothic, a portrait of Ella Watson, a janitor at a government building posing with broom and mop in front of an American flag.

In the late 1940s Parks joined the staff of the hugely popular Life, contributing photo essays over the next three decades on subjects ranging from gangs in Harlem and slum life in Brazil to profiles of black leaders such as Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X. His images and words showed Life’s millions of readers the crushing effects of racism and poverty while celebrating the determination and resilience of the human spirit. Throughout this time, Parks also remained an in-demand fashion photographer for publications like Vogue and Glamour.

Parks personally selected the works exhibited in Bare Witness: Photographs by Gordon Parks before his death as his most accomplished images. The exhibition is in Block Museum’s Main Gallery from April 24 to June 28, 2009.

The Events

The following events are free and open to the public.

Fall 2008

The Artist at War: John Swope and the History of War Photography
Friday, September 26
Carolyn Peter, curator of A Letter from Japan: The Photographs of John Swope and director of the Laband Art Gallery, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, spoke about John Swope’s work in the context of war photography. An audio recording of her talk is available on the Block’s podcast page.

World War II Short Films
Wednesday, October 8 and Wednesday, November 12
John Swope began his career as a photographer in Hollywood and worked for military public relations departments during the Second World War. Block Cinema explored how Hollywood and the U.S. military came together to support the war effort with two evenings of short documentary and propaganda films from the Rohauer Collection and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Winter 2009

Patti Smith on Film and in Conversation
Friday, January 30
Musician and poet Patti Smith attended the Block Cinema screening of the documentary film Patti Smith: Dream of Life and participated in a post-film screening with the film's director, Steven Sebring, and Jim DeRogatis, pop music critic for the Chicago Sun-Times and co-host of Sound Opinions.

Video of this event, as well as two performance clips. can be found on the Block Museum's podcast page. Photos can be found on the Block Museum's Facebook page.

Block Cinema: Still Moving and Black, White + Grey
Friday, March 6
Block Cinema presented Still Moving, a short film made in 1978 by Robert Mapplethorpe and Patti Smith, and Black, White + Grey, a recent documentary about the relationship between Mapplethorpe and his patron and lover, the art curator and collector Sam Wagstaff. Block Museum senior curator Debora Wood introduced both films.

Robert Mapplethorpe: Artist and Activist
Saturday, March 7
A discussion of Mapplethorpe’s influence on contemporary photography, issues of the body and sexuality, and activism. A podcast is available on the Block's podcast page.

Participants:

Catherine Opie, photographer
Sylvia Wolf, director of the Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, and curator of the exhibition Polaroids: Mapplethorpe
Marisa Cardinale, AIDS Community Research Initiative of America cofounder and former collections consultant for the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation
Jeffrey Q. McCune Jr., assistant professor of American studies and women’s studies, University of Maryland-College Park
Moderated by Lane Relyea, assistant professor of art theory & practice, Northwestern University

This event was sponsored by the Gender Studies Program, Northwestern University.

Spring 2009

Gordon Parks and His Artistic Process: Photography, Film, and Writing
Thursday, May 7, 6 pm
Author, photographer, and filmmaker David Parks discussed the work and legacy of his father, Gordon Parks. Watch a video on our podcast page or read an interview with David Parks on our news page.

Block Cinema: Shaft
Friday, May 8, 8 pm
Gordon Parks was the first African American to direct films for the major Hollywood studios. His second feature-length film was a huge hit, ushering in a new wave of black action heroes. David Parks, who worked on his father’s film, introduced the screening and answer questions afterward.

Gordon Parks: A Renaissance Man
Saturday, May 16, 2–4 pm
A discussion of Gordon Parks's influence on 20th-century photography and film, considering both his artistic and social contributions to the media.

Participants:

Bob Black, cofounder and vice president of the Chicago Association of African American Photographers.
Philip Brookman, director of curatorial affairs, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Darlene Clark Hine, chair and professor, Department of African American Studies, and professor of history, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, Northwestern University.
Maren Stange, associate professor of American studies and visual culture, The Cooper Union, New York.
Due to illness, Deborah Willis, chair and professor, Department of Photography and Imaging, New York University, will not be able to attend.

A podcast is available on the Block Museum's podcast page.

The Block Museum's Three American Photographers: In Depth is sponsored by the Terra Foundation for American Art. Additional support is provided by the Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities, Northwestern University.