Photography Audio and Video

For over 20 years, Lynsey Addario has covered major conflict zones across the globe creating powerful and evocative images that bear witness to pressing humanitarian issues. A regular contributor to National Geographic, The New York Times, and TIME magazine, her perilous work documenting both the front lines and the individual experience of war has changed the way we see world conflict. Addario has been the recipient of numerous international awards including a MacArthur Fellowship or “Genius Grant” and the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting.

Vera Lutter, artist, and Sarah Greenough, senior curator and head, department of photographs, National Gallery of Art. In 1990 the National Gallery of Art launched an initiative to acquire the finest examples of the art of photography and to mount photography exhibitions of the highest quality, accompanied by scholarly publications and programs. In the years since, the Gallery’s collection of photographs has grown to nearly 15,000 works encompassing the history of the medium from its beginnings in 1839 to the present, featuring in-depth holdings of work by many of the masters of the art form. Commemorating the 25th anniversary of this initiative, the Gallery presents the exhibition The Memory of Time: Contemporary Photographs at the National Gallery of Art, Acquired with the Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund. On view from May 3 through September 13, 2015, The Memory of Time explores the work of 26 contemporary artists who investigate the richness and complexity of photography’s relationship to time, memory, and history. In this conversation recorded on May 17, 2015, artist Vera Lutter and exhibition curator Sarah Greenough discuss Lutter’s work featured in the exhibition and permanent collection within the context of her career.

Sarah Greenough, senior curator and head, department of photographs, National Gallery of Art. In 1990 the National Gallery of Art launched an initiative to acquire the finest examples of the art of photography and to mount photography exhibitions of the highest quality, accompanied by scholarly publications and programs. In the years since, the Gallery’s collection of photographs has grown to nearly 15,000 works encompassing the history of the medium from its beginnings in 1839 to the present, featuring in-depth holdings of work by many of the masters of the art form. The Gallery’s program of photography-related exhibitions and publications is now considered among the best in the world. Commemorating the 25th anniversary of this initiative, the Gallery presents three major exhibitions in 2015 exemplifying the vitality, breadth, and history of its photography holdings. Two of these exhibitions opened simultaneously on May 3, 2015: In Light of the Past: 25 Years of Photography at the National Gallery of Art and The Memory of Time: Contemporary Photographs at the National Gallery of Art, Acquired with the Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund. In this lecture held in honor of opening day, Sarah Greenough provides a brief history of the growth of the Gallery’s photography program and an overview of both exhibitions. On view through July 26, 2015, In Light of the Past demonstrates how the Gallery’s exemplary holdings reveal the evolution of the art of photography. On view through September 13, 2015, The Memory of Time explores the work of 26 contemporary artists who investigate the richness and complexity of photography’s relationship to time, memory, and history.

Michael Fried, J. R. Herbert Boone Chair in the Humanities and professor of the history of art, John Hopkins University. To celebrate the publication of his latest book, Another Light: Jacques-Louis David to Thomas Demand, Michael Fried presented a film screening and lecture at the National Gallery of Art on February 22, 2015. After showing Thomas Demand’s brilliant stop-motion film Pacific Sun (2012), Fried presents his analysis of the film—both in its own right and in relation to Demand’s much-admired photographic work.

Zahid R. Chaudhary, associate professor of English and director of graduate studies, Princeton UniversityZahid R. Chaudhary, associate professor of English and director of graduate studies, Princeton University. British army officer Captain Linnaeus Tripe (1822–1902) occupies a special place in the history of 19th-century photography for the outstanding body of work he produced in India and Burma (now the republic of Myanmar) in the 1850s. With few models to follow, he used photography to explore these little-known cultures, working under the auspices of the British East India Company. On December 10, 2014, the National Gallery of Art hosted a public symposium to accompany the exhibition Captain Linnaeus Tripe: Photographer of India and Burma, 1852–1860. On view September 21, 2014-January 4, 2015, the exhibition traces Tripe’s work from his earliest photographs made in England (1852–1854), to ones created on expeditions to the south Indian kingdom of Mysore (1854), to Burma (1855), and again to south India (1857–1858). Many of his photographs were the first to document celebrated archaeological sites and monuments, ancient and contemporary religious and secular buildings — some now destroyed — as well as geological formations and landscape vistas. Yet the dynamic vision Tripe brought to these large, technically complex photographs and the lavish attention he paid to their execution indicate that his aims were artistic as well.

John Falconer, curator of photographs, India Office Collection, The British Library. British army officer Captain Linnaeus Tripe (1822–1902) occupies a special place in the history of 19th-century photography for the outstanding body of work he produced in India and Burma (now the republic of Myanmar) in the 1850s. With few models to follow, he used photography to explore these little-known cultures, working under the auspices of the British East India Company. On December 10, 2014, the National Gallery of Art hosted a public symposium to accompany the exhibition Captain Linnaeus Tripe: Photographer of India and Burma, 1852–1860. On view September 21, 2014-January 4, 2015, the exhibition traces Tripe’s work from his earliest photographs made in England (1852–1854), to ones created on expeditions to the south Indian kingdom of Mysore (1854), to Burma (1855), and again to south India (1857–1858). Many of his photographs were the first to document celebrated archaeological sites and monuments, ancient and contemporary religious and secular buildings — some now destroyed — as well as geological formations and landscape vistas. Yet the dynamic vision Tripe brought to these large, technically complex photographs and the lavish attention he paid to their execution indicate that his aims were artistic as well.

Maria Antonella Pelizzari, professor of art history, Hunter College, City University of New YorkMaria Antonella Pelizzari, professor of art history, Hunter College, City University of New York. British army officer Captain Linnaeus Tripe (1822–1902) occupies a special place in the history of 19th-century photography for the outstanding body of work he produced in India and Burma (now the republic of Myanmar) in the 1850s. With few models to follow, he used photography to explore these little-known cultures, working under the auspices of the British East India Company. On December 10, 2014, the National Gallery of Art hosted a public symposium to accompany the exhibition Captain Linnaeus Tripe: Photographer of India and Burma, 1852–1860. On view September 21, 2014-January 4, 2015, the exhibition traces Tripe’s work from his earliest photographs made in England (1852–1854), to ones created on expeditions to the south Indian kingdom of Mysore (1854), to Burma (1855), and again to south India (1857–1858). Many of his photographs were the first to document celebrated archaeological sites and monuments, ancient and contemporary religious and secular buildings — some now destroyed — as well as geological formations and landscape vistas. Yet the dynamic vision Tripe brought to these large, technically complex photographs and the lavish attention he paid to their execution indicate that his aims were artistic as well.

Sarah Greenough, senior curator and head, department of photographs, National Gallery of Art

Captain Linnaeus Tripe was a British photographer best known for the outstanding body of work he produced in India and Burma (now Myanmar) in the 1850s. Under the auspices of the East India Company, he took many photographs of archaeological sites and monuments, ancient and contemporary religious and secular buildings, as well as geological formations and landscape vistas that had not been seen before in the West. His military training gave his work a striking aesthetic and formal rigor and helped him achieve remarkably consistent results, despite the challenges that India’s heat and humidity posed to photographic chemistry. In this lecture recorded on September 28, 2014, curator Sarah Greenough discusses the 60 works that comprise the first major exhibition of his photographs, Captain Linnaeus Tripe: Photographer of India and Burma, 1852–1860, on view from September 21, 2014 to January 2, 2015 at the National Gallery of Art. 

Naomi Lyons and Jeremy Cox, trustees, Frederick & Frances Sommer Foundation; and Ksenya Gurshtein, Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow, National Gallery of Art. For the last five years, Jeremy Cox and Naomi Lyons have been building an online catalogue raisonné of American artist Frederick Sommer (1905-1999), whose work explored an unusually broad array of subjects ranging from disorienting landscapes and macabre aspects of the natural world to surreal arrangements of found objects and virtual abstractions. Ksenya Gurshtein curated the exhibition A World of Bonds: Frederick Sommer’s Photography and Friendships, on view at the National Gallery of Art from June 16 through August 4, 2013. Drawn largely from the Gallery’s collection, which includes significant works gifted by the artist himself in 1995, the exhibition showcased not only the beauty and diversity of Sommer’s striking images but put them in dialogue with the work of artist-friends who helped shape his vision. As a supplement to this temporary onsite exhibition, Gurshtein created a scholarly digital introduction to Sommer and his 35 photographs in the collection as a permanent feature of the Gallery’s website. In this lecture recorded on March 31, 2014, as part of the Gallery’s Works in Progress lecture series, Lyons, Cox, and Gurshtein reflect on their reasons for and experiences with using digital formats to produce scholarship, considering the ways in which they influence the knowledge available about a given artist, open up new ways of approaching and conveying a particular artist’s sensibility, and affect our experience of analog art.

Leo Rubinfien, photographer and guest exhibition curator of Garry Winogrand. In honor of the National Gallery of Art’s exhibition Garry Winogrand, Leo Rubinfien, a friend and protégé of Winogrand’s during the last decade of his life, delivers this opening day lecture on March 2, 2014. A renowned photographer of American life—particularly New York City—from the 1950s through the early 1980s, Winogrand (1928–1984) worked with dazzling energy and a voracious appetite. Rubinfien provides an introduction to Winogrand's body of work: its themes, its optimism and fatalism, and the turbulent years in which it developed. This first Winogrand retrospective in 25 years presents some 180 photographs, including iconic images and more than 60 never-seen-before prints and contact sheets. Together they reveal the full breadth of his art. Garry Winogrand is on view through June 8, 2014.

Shelley Rice, arts professor, department of photography and imaging and department of art history, New York University. Organized in conjunction with Charles Marville: Photographer of Paris, this symposium held on December 6, 2013, at the National Gallery of Art offers new perspectives on art and urbanism in 19th-century Paris. An international panel of art, architectural, and literary historians address the transformation of 19th-century Paris in papers that focus on diverse topics including the representation of Parisian quarries in 19th-century photography, painting, and literature; the formative role of architect Gabriel Davioud in reshaping Paris; the use of photography to map the changing city; new modes of transportation that shape the experience and representations of the city;  the impact of 19th-century photography of Paris on 20th-century film;  and the relationship between Marville’s urban documentation and contemporary photographic practice. Charles Marville: Photographer of Paris is on view at the Gallery through January 5, 2014.

Jeannene Przyblyski, provost and faculty, California Institute of the Arts. Organized in conjunction with Charles Marville: Photographer of Paris, this symposium held on December 6, 2013, at the National Gallery of Art offers new perspectives on art and urbanism in 19th-century Paris. An international panel of art, architectural, and literary historians address the transformation of 19th-century Paris in papers that focus on diverse topics including the representation of Parisian quarries in 19th-century photography, painting, and literature; the formative role of architect Gabriel Davioud in reshaping Paris; the use of photography to map the changing city; new modes of transportation that shape the experience and representations of the city;  the impact of 19th-century photography of Paris on 20th-century film;  and the relationship between Marville’s urban documentation and contemporary photographic practice. Charles Marville: Photographer of Paris is on view at the Gallery through January 5, 2014.

Nancy Locke, associate professor of art history, The Pennsylvania State University. Organized in conjunction with Charles Marville: Photographer of Paris, this symposium held on December 6, 2013, at the National Gallery of Art offers new perspectives on art and urbanism in 19th-century Paris. An international panel of art, architectural, and literary historians address the transformation of 19th-century Paris in papers that focus on diverse topics including the representation of Parisian quarries in 19th-century photography, painting, and literature; the formative role of architect Gabriel Davioud in reshaping Paris; the use of photography to map the changing city; new modes of transportation that shape the experience and representations of the city;  the impact of 19th-century photography of Paris on 20th-century film;  and the relationship between Marville’s urban documentation and contemporary photographic practice. Charles Marville: Photographer of Paris is on view at the Gallery through January 5, 2014.

Hollis Clayson, Samuel H. Kress Professor 2013–2014, Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art. Organized in conjunction with Charles Marville: Photographer of Paris, this symposium held on December 6, 2013, at the National Gallery of Art offers new perspectives on art and urbanism in 19th-century Paris. An international panel of art, architectural, and literary historians address the transformation of 19th-century Paris in papers that focus on diverse topics including the representation of Parisian quarries in 19th-century photography, painting, and literature; the formative role of architect Gabriel Davioud in reshaping Paris; the use of photography to map the changing city; new modes of transportation that shape the experience and representations of the city;  the impact of 19th-century photography of Paris on 20th-century film;  and the relationship between Marville’s urban documentation and contemporary photographic practice. Charles Marville: Photographer of Paris is on view at the Gallery through January 5, 2014.

Stéphane Kirkland, author, Paris Reborn: Napoléon III, Haussmann, and the Quest to Build a Modern City. Organized in conjunction with Charles Marville: Photographer of Paris, this symposium held on December 6, 2013, at the National Gallery of Art offers new perspectives on art and urbanism in 19th-century Paris. An international panel of art, architectural, and literary historians address the transformation of 19th-century Paris in papers that focus on diverse topics including the representation of Parisian quarries in 19th-century photography, painting, and literature; the formative role of architect Gabriel Davioud in reshaping Paris; the use of photography to map the changing city; new modes of transportation that shape the experience and representations of the city;  the impact of 19th-century photography of Paris on 20th-century film;  and the relationship between Marville’s urban documentation and contemporary photographic practice. Charles Marville: Photographer of Paris is on view at the Gallery through January 5, 2014.

Min Kyung Lee, assistant professor, Modern Architecture and Urban Planning College of the Holy Cross. Organized in conjunction with Charles Marville: Photographer of Paris, this symposium held on December 6, 2013, at the National Gallery of Art offers new perspectives on art and urbanism in 19th-century Paris. An international panel of art, architectural, and literary historians address the transformation of 19th-century Paris in papers that focus on diverse topics including the representation of Parisian quarries in 19th-century photography, painting, and literature; the formative role of architect Gabriel Davioud in reshaping Paris; the use of photography to map the changing city; new modes of transportation that shape the experience and representations of the city;  the impact of 19th-century photography of Paris on 20th-century film;  and the relationship between Marville’s urban documentation and contemporary photographic practice. Charles Marville: Photographer of Paris is on view at the Gallery through January 5, 2014.

Masha Belenky, associate professor of French and acting chair, department of Romance, German, and Slavic Languages and Literatures, The George Washington University. Organized in conjunction with Charles Marville: Photographer of Paris, this symposium held on December 6, 2013, at the National Gallery of Art offers new perspectives on art and urbanism in 19th-century Paris. An international panel of art, architectural, and literary historians address the transformation of 19th-century Paris in papers that focus on diverse topics including the representation of Parisian quarries in 19th-century photography, painting, and literature; the formative role of architect Gabriel Davioud in reshaping Paris; the use of photography to map the changing city; new modes of transportation that shape the experience and representations of the city;  the impact of 19th-century photography of Paris on 20th-century film;  and the relationship between Marville’s urban documentation and contemporary photographic practice. Charles Marville: Photographer of Paris is on view at the Gallery through January 5, 2014.

Sarah Kennel, associate curator, department of photographs, National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art’s exhibition Charles Marville: Photographer of Paris, on view from September 29, 2013, through January 5, 2014, is the first retrospective exhibition in the United States on the renowned 19th-century French photographer Charles Marville (1813–1879). In this opening day lecture, Sarah Kennel discusses some of the 100 featured photographs that cover the arc of Marville's career, from his city scenes and landscape and architectural studies of Europe in the early 1850s to his compelling photographs of Paris and its environs in the late 1870s. The exhibition presents recent groundbreaking discoveries informing Marville’s art and biography, including the versatility of his photographic talents and his true identity, background, and family life.

Sarah Greenough, senior curator and head of the department of photographs, National Gallery of Art; Nancy Anderson, curator and head of the department of American and British paintings, National Gallery of Art; Lindsay Harris, research associate, department of photographs, National Gallery of Art; Renée Ater, associate professor of art history and director of academic programs, University of Maryland, College Park. To celebrate the exhibition opening of Tell It with Pride: The 54th Massachusetts Regiment and Augustus Saint-Gaudens' Shaw Memorial on September 15, 2013, the curators and catalogue authors discuss the individual stories and photographic portraits of the soldiers in the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, as well as those of the men and women who recruited, nursed, taught, and guided them. On view through January 20, 2014, the exhibition considers the legacy of the 54th and the Battle of Fort Wagner in art, examining nineteenth century efforts to memorialize those who fought, including early works by African American artists Edward Bannister and Edmonia Lewis in addition to Saint-Gaudens’ development of the Shaw Memorial itself. The lecture concludes with the continuing inspiration that the 54th, its defining battle, and the Shaw Memorial have been for twentieth and twenty-first century artists as diverse as Richard Benson, Ed Hamilton, Lewis Hine, Carrie Mae Weems, and William Earle Williams.

Tina Barney, artist; Sarah Greenough, senior curator and head of the department of photographs, National Gallery of Art; Sarah Lewis, art historian, author and curator; Clifford Ross, artist; and Robert Storr, dean of the Yale School of Art, chairman of FAPE’s Professional Fine Arts Advisors, and consulting curator of modern and contemporary art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In collaboration with the Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies (FAPE), the National Gallery of Art hosted a panel discussion on the role of art in diplomacy on April 30, 2013. The panelists—Sarah Greenough, Sarah Lewis, and Robert Storr—present an overview of FAPE’s photography collection in American embassies around the world. Tina Barney discusses her recent gift to FAPE, and Clifford Ross reviews the photographs acquired by FAPE for display at the US Mission to the United Nations in New York as well as recent projects in China.

Mia Fineman, assistant curator, department of photographs, Metropolitan Museum of Art. The urge to modify camera images is as old as photography itself—only the methods have changed. Faking It: Manipulated Photography before Photoshop is the first major exhibition devoted to the history of manipulated photographs before the digital age. The exhibition, on view at the National Gallery of Art from February 17 to May 5, 2013, offers a provocative new perspective on the history of photography. In this lecture recorded on February 24, 2013, exhibition curator Mia Fineman traces photographic manipulation from the 1840s through the 1980s and shows that photography is—and always has been—a medium of fabricated truths and artful lies.

Tim Barringer, Paul Mellon Professor of the History of Art and director of graduate studies, Yale University; Jason Rosenfeld, distinguished chair and professor of art history, Marymount Manhattan College; and Diane Waggoner, associate curator, department of photographs, National Gallery of Art. In this podcast recorded on February 17, 2013, at the National Gallery of Art, Tim Barringer, Jason Rosenfeld, and Diane Waggoner celebrate the opening of the exhibition Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Art and Design, 1848–1900, the first major survey of Pre-Raphaelite art to be shown in the United States. The Pre-Raphaelites were a group of young artists who sought to overturn established traditions of painting and made art that looked to the past for inspiration, but also engaged directly with the bustling modern world of Victorian Britain. The exhibition features some 130 paintings, sculptures, photography, works on paper, and decorative art objects that reflect the ideals of Britain's first modern art movement. Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Art and Design, 1848–1900 is on display through May 19, 2013.

Sarah Kennel, associate curator, department of photographs, National Gallery of Art, and Ksenya Gurshtein, Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow, National Gallery of Art. To celebrate the opening of The Serial Portrait: Photography and Identity in the Last One Hundred Years at the National Gallery of Art on September 30, 2012, Sarah Kennel and Ksenya Gurshtein explored the role of seriality in 20th-century and contemporary photographic portraiture. On view through December 31, 2012, the exhibition features some 150 works by 20 photographers who transcend the limits of the single image by photographing the same subjects- "primarily friends, family, and themselves"- over the course of days, months, years, and even decades.

Sarah Greenough, senior curator and head of the department of photographs, National Gallery of Art. In celebration of the exhibition opening, curator Sarah Greenough introduces Harry Callahan at 100 on view at the National Gallery of Art from October 2, 2011, through March 4, 2012. As Greenough notes, this exhibition celebrates the 100th anniversary of Callahan's birth in 1912. The exhibition explores all facets of Callahan's rich contribution to 20th-century American art from his earliest work made in Detroit during World War II, to photographs made in Chicago in the late 1940s and 1950s, to works made in Providence in the 1960s and 1970s, to his final pieces made during travels around the world in the later 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.

Sarah Greenough, senior curator and head of the department of photographs, National Gallery of Art. Sarah Greenough talks about her new book on the letters of Georgia O'Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz, My Faraway One: Selected Letters of Georgia O'Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz, Volume One, 1915-1933, in this podcast recorded on September 18, 2011, at the National Gallery of Art. Greenough notes the insights provided by the correspondence on their art, their friendships with many key figures of early twentieth-century American art and culture, and, most especially, their relationship with each other.

Ann Hamilton presented a lecture on her nearly 30-year career as part of the Diamonstein-Spielvogel Lecture Series at the National Gallery of Art on September 16, 2011. Hamilton has made multimedia installations with stunning qualities and quantities of materials: a room lined with small canvas dummies, a table spread with human and animal teeth, the artist herself wearing a man's suit covered in a layer of thousands of toothpicks. Along the way, she has constantly set and reset the course of contemporary art. Often using sound, found objects, and the spoken and written word, as well as photography and video, her objects and environments invite us to embark on sensory and metaphorical explorations of time, language, and memory. Textiles and fabric have consistently played an important role in her performances and installations—whether she is considering clothing as a membrane or (more recently) treating architecture itself as a kind of skin. The Gallery owns 15 works by the artist, including photographs, prints, sculptures, and a video installation.

Britt Salvesen, curator and head, Wallis Annenberg Photography Department and prints and drawings department, Los Angeles County Museum of Art. In his Prototypes series of photographs, Lewis Baltz represented the built environment of the 1960s and 1970s. He critiqued modernist aspirations while examining commercial realities. In this lecture recorded on June 5, 2011, at the National Gallery of Art, Britt Salvesen examines Baltz's work and several different visual sources available to him, from the Case Study houses as photographed by Julius Shulman to minimalist painting and sculpture, to Ed Ruscha and New Topographics. This lecture was presented in conjunction with the Gallery's exhibition Lewis Baltz: Prototypes/Ronde de Nuit, on view until July 31, 2011.

Sarah Greenough, senior curator and head, department of photographs, National Gallery of Art, and Matthew S. Witkovsky, exhibition guest curator. Featured are some 50 Prototypes—on view together for the first time—and the mural-sized 12-panel color work Ronde de Nuit. Greenough and Witkovsky discuss the artist's interest in the postwar American landscape, as revealed in Prototypes, and his continuing preoccupation with industrially manufactured environments and how they are used to control contemporary society, as shown in Ronde de Nuit.

The award-winning film The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg offers a fascinating portrait of a poet and photographer who helped define postwar American counterculture. Originally released in 1994, Jerry Aronson’s documentary was rereleased in 2005 with additional hours of interviews with numerous contemporary artists and cultural figures, among them Andy Warhol, Patti Smith, and Norman Mailer. Two screenings of the film were held at the National Gallery of Art in September 2010, and the new edition of the two-disk set is available through the Gallery Shop.

Sarah Greenough, senior curator, department of photographs, National Gallery of Art, Washington, and Bill Morgan, author and Ginsberg archivist. In the early 1980s American poet Allen Ginsberg rediscovered his early photographs and negatives taken throughout the Beat movement. With encouragement from photographers Berenice Abbott and Robert Frank, he reprinted many of these works and made new portraits of longtime friends and new acquaintances, such as Francesco Clemente and Bob Dylan, adding extensive inscriptions by hand. In the second of this two-part podcast series, produced on the occasion of the exhibition Beat Memories: The Photographs of Allen Ginsberg, Greenough talks with Bill Morgan about cataloguing the poet's archives and his photographic contributions in the last 15 years of his life.

Sarah Greenough, senior curator, department of photographs, National Gallery of Art, Washington, and Bill Morgan, author and Ginsberg archivist. American poet Allen Ginsberg took occasional snapshots in the 1940s, but in 1953 he purchased a small, secondhand Kodak camera that he took with him everywhere. For the next decade, he made numerous portraits of himself and his friends, including the writers Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs, while also formulating and refining his poetic voice. In the first of this two-part podcast series, produced on the occasion of the exhibition Beat Memories: The Photographs of Allen Ginsberg, Greenough talks with Bill Morgan about the poet's role in documenting the Beat movement.

Sarah Kennel, associate curator, department of photographs, National Gallery of Art, Washington. The extraordinary range and complexity of the photographic process-from the origins of the medium in the 1840s to the advent of digital photography at the end of the 20th century-are explored in a comprehensive exhibition and accompanying guidebook. On the occasion of In the Darkroom: Photographic Processes before the Digital Age, Kennel talks to host Barbara Tempchin about the major technological developments in the 170-year history of photography.

Sarah Greenough, senior curator, department of photographs, National Gallery of Art, Washington, and photographer Robert Bergman. Using a handheld 35mm camera and available light, American photographer Robert Bergman spent nearly a decade making a series of large color portraits that address not only his subjects' physical presence but also their psychic state. On the occasion of Bergman's first solo exhibition, Greenough talks to the artist about his exceptional ability to reveal the common humanity of each of his subjects.

Matthew Witkovsky, chair and curator, department of photography, the Art Institute of Chicago. Jaromír Funke, a leading figure in Czech and Slovak photography between the world wars, blazed a path with his compatriots-a group of committed amateurs-toward photography as a modern form of art. In this podcast, produced on the occasion of the Gallery exhibition Jaromír Funke and the Amateur Avant-Garde, Witkovsky talks to host Barbara Tempchin about the Czech photographer's influential role in this movement.

Photographer Robert Frank and Sarah Greenough, senior curator and head of the department of photographs, National Gallery of Art. Looking In: Robert Frank's The Americans, an exhibition organized by the National Gallery of Art, is the most comprehensive and in-depth exploration of the single most important book of photographs published since World War II. In this podcast of the annual Elson Lecture, recorded on March 26, 2009, Greenough speaks with the renowned photographer about his career before, during, and after The Americans.

Sarah Greenough, senior curator and head of the department of photographs, National Gallery of Art, and Philippe Séclier, filmmaker. Fifty years after the publication of The Americans, French filmmaker Philippe Séclier retraced Robert Frank's journey through the United States in 1955 and 1956. Working with only a small digital camera, Séclier explores the legacy of the 1950s and the impact of the book on photography and culture in this 15,000-mile odyssey through present-day America. In this podcast, Greenough and Séclier discuss his tribute, four years in the making, to the renowned photographer.

Noted scholars Stephen Brooke, Martin Gasser, Olivier Lugon, and Alan Trachtenberg present illustrated lectures in this podcast, recorded on January 24, 2009, at the National Gallery of Art. Held in conjunction with the exhibition Looking In: Robert Frank's "The Americans," on view at the Gallery from January 18 to April 26, 2009, this symposium considered other artists who created photographic books and played a role in the dissemination of photography in the 20th century.

Sarah Greenough, senior curator and head of the department of photographs, National Gallery of Art. Looking In: Robert Frank's The Americans, an exhibition organized by the National Gallery of Art, is the most comprehensive and in-depth exploration ever undertaken of the preeminent book of photographs published since World War II. In this Notable Lectures podcast, recorded on January 18, 2009, the opening day of the exhibition, Greenough discusses Frank's process in creating this powerful and provocative book as well as the publication's legacy 50 years later.

Photographer Richard Misrach and Sarah Greenough, senior curator of photographs, National Gallery of Art. Employing an aerial perspective, Richard Misrach instilled his monumental beach series with a sense of disquiet: with references to the horizon and sky eliminated, figures appear isolated and vulnerable. In the third of this three-part podcast, produced on the occasion of the exhibition Richard Misrach: On the Beach, Misrach and Greenough delve into the impact of new photographic technology on his art and the inspiration for his series.

Photographer Richard Misrach and Sarah Greenough, senior curator of photographs, National Gallery of Art. Employing an aerial perspective, Richard Misrach instilled his monumental beach series with a sense of disquiet: with references to the horizon and sky eliminated, figures appear isolated and vulnerable. In the second of this three-part podcast, produced on the occasion of the exhibition Richard Misrach: On the Beach, Misrach discusses the process by which he reached his current photographic style.

Photographer Richard Misrach and Sarah Greenough, senior curator of photographs, National Gallery of Art. Employing an aerial perspective, Richard Misrach instilled his monumental beach series with a sense of disquiet: with references to the horizon and sky eliminated, figures appear isolated and vulnerable. In the first of this three-part podcast, produced on the occasion of the exhibition Richard Misrach: On the Beach, he talks to Sarah Greenough about the influences and origins of his photographic career.

Richard Misrach, photographer. American photographer Richard Misrach's monumental color photographs explore the sublime beauty and inherent danger of the sea and its surroundings. In this podcast recorded at the National Gallery of Art on June 8, 2008, Misrach discusses the camera techniques he employed and the personal inspirations he drew upon to create the 19 color photographs, made between 2002 and 2005, featured in the exhibition Richard Misrach: On the Beach, on view at the Gallery from May 25 to September 1, 2008.

Sarah Greenough, senior curator of photographs, National Gallery of Art, and Roger Taylor, professor of photographic history at De Montfort University, Leicester. Two methods of fixing an image dominated the early days of photography: the one-of-a-kind daguerreotype and the replicable calotype, which was made using paper negatives. In the second of this two-part episode, Gallery curator Sarah Greenough and Professor Roger Taylor of De Montfort University discuss some of the best calotypists, the subjects that fascinated them, and the slow death of the medium as it was supplanted by more popular photographic processes. Produced in conjunction with the exhibition Impressed by Light: British Photographs from Paper Negatives, 1840-1860.

Sarah Greenough, senior curator of photographs, National Gallery of Art, and Roger Taylor, professor of photographic history at De Montfort University, Leicester. Two methods of fixing an image dominated the early days of photography: the one-of-a-kind daguerreotype and the replicable calotype, which was made using paper negatives. In the first of this two-part episode, Gallery curator Sarah Greenough, and Professor Roger Taylor of DeMontfort University discuss the emergence of the calotype and how it competed with the emergence of glass negatives. Produced in conjunction with the exhibition Impressed by Light: British Photographs from Paper Negatives, 1840-1860.

Robert E. Jackson, collector, and Sarah Greenough, senior curator of photographs, National Gallery of Art. Robert E. Jackson has been collecting other people's snapshots for more than a decade. Some of the best works in his collection are on display in The Art of the American Snapshot, 1888-1978. In this podcast Jackson and Sarah Greenough, senior curator of photographs, talk about why he collects snapshots and what makes an image capture his attention.

Sarah Greenough, senior curator of photographs, National Gallery of Art. Since the first Kodak camera was sold in 1888, American amateur photographers have taken billions of snapshots. In this Backstory episode, curator Sarah Greenough and host Barbara Tempchin discuss how anonymous photographers experimented with the medium, creating artfully crafted images. They also talk about the exhibition The Art of the American Snapshot, 1888-1978: From the Collection of Robert E. Jackson.

Sarah Greenough, curator and head of the department of photographs. National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art has presented memorable exhibitions of photographs through the years, ranging from monographic shows on the work of such well-known photographers as Ansel Adams and Robert Frank to historically based exhibitions such as Foto: Modernity in Central Europe, 1918-1945. The Gallery's deputy director Alan Shestack speaks with curator Sarah Greenough about the history of the photography collection and the gallery space devoted to the medium.

Margaret Parsons, head of the film programs and Sonja Simonyi, curator of the Modernity and Tradition film series. In Europe during the period between the two world wars, artistic motion pictures were as popular a medium of expression as photography. The National Gallery of Art film series Modernity and Tradition: Film in Interwar Central Europe, which accompanies the Gallery's exhibition on tour, Foto: Modernity in Central Europe, 1918-1945, includes more than thirty documentaries, features, and experimental films.

Matthew S. Witkovsky, assistant curator of photographs. Against a background of tremendous social and political upheaval, photography scaled new heights in Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, and Poland. Between the two world wars. Host Barbara Tempchin and Matthew Witkovsky, curator of Foto: Modernity in Central Europe, 1918-1945, discuss the landmark exhibition, which had its world premiere here at the National Gallery of Art in June 2007 landmark exhibition.

Robert Leibowits, collector. For years Robert and June Leibowits have been collecting photographs and books. A portion of their impressive collection of eastern European photographs from between the two world wars is featured in the National Gallery of Art exhibition Foto: Modernity in Central Europe, 1918-1945. Exhibition curator Matthew S. Witkovsky chats with Robert Leibowits to find out what drives him to collect in this medium and subject area.

Jeff Wall, artist. Canadian-born photographer Jeff Wall first became interested in photography in the mid-1960s. He was struck by the perfectionism that characterized the practice at that time—the idea that photographs should, and must, document the world as it is. Photography seemed to be strict reportage, instead of allowing for collaboration between the photographer and subject (as with cinematography). Films were composed of a series of still photographs, but the potential for collaboration within a single photograph had not yet been realized. In this lecture recorded at the National Gallery of Art on April 17, 1999, Wall discusses his work and his relation with what he calls cinematography. He works with performers and prepares the composition to create an image of something that he has actually seen. Through the large-scale photographs for which he is best known, Wall seeks to tell a fragment of a story and allow spectators to finish the story for themselves.

Photographers Ray Metzker, Emmet Gowin, and Jim Dow with Sarah Greenough, senior curator and head, department of photographs, National Gallery of Art. Photography was not invented until the mid-19th century, and the process was not widely taught as an art form until World War II. In 1946 famed Bauhaus photographer and painter László Moholy-Nagy recruited Harry Callahan to teach at the Institute of Design he had established in Chicago. One of the most important schools of photography in 20th-century America, the institute championed such qualities as serendipity and experimentation, setting new standards for the medium and attracting students who would become some of the nation’s finest photographers. While reflecting on his time as a professor, Callahan said, “teaching taught me how little I knew and it forced me to think; I had to teach to get an education.” In this program recorded on March 23, 1996, at the National Gallery of Art, Callahan’s students Ray Metzker, Emmet Gowin, and Jim Dow—all photographers in their own right—recount experiences of their friend and mentor. This program was held in celebration of the exhibition Harry Callahan, on view from March 3 to May 22, 1996, at the National Gallery of Art.

Ed Grazda, photographer. Panel discussion follows with co-curators of the exhibition Sarah Greenough, curator of photographs, National Gallery of Art, and Philip Brookman, curator of photography and media arts, Corcoran Gallery of Art. On October 15, 1994, the National Gallery of Art hosted a public symposium in honor of its first exhibition devoted to a living photographer: Robert Frank: Moving Out. The exhibition was drawn largely from the Robert Frank Collection given by the artist to the Gallery in 1990. Including 157 photographs, a book, and 2 videos, the show featured Frank’s early work in Switzerland, as well as images from his travels in Peru, France, Spain, England, and the United States. Robert Delpire, Allen Ginsberg, Jonas Mekas, and Ed Grazda, Frank's close friends who influenced his life and career, participated in this symposium. Robert Frank: Moving Out was on view at the National Gallery of Art from October 2 through December 3, 1994. 

Jonas Mekas, filmmaker and founder, Anthology Film Archives. On October 15, 1994, the National Gallery of Art hosted a public symposium in honor of its first exhibition devoted to a living photographer: Robert Frank: Moving Out. The exhibition was drawn largely from the Robert Frank Collection given by the artist to the Gallery in 1990. Including 157 photographs, a book, and 2 videos, the show featured Frank’s early work in Switzerland, as well as images from his travels in Peru, France, Spain, England, and the United States. Robert Delpire, Allen Ginsberg, Jonas Mekas, and Ed Grazda, Frank's close friends who influenced his life and career, participated in this symposium. Robert Frank: Moving Out was on view at the National Gallery of Art from October 2 through December 3, 1994. 

Robert Delpire, publisher and director, Centre Nationale de la Photographie, Paris. On October 15, 1994, the National Gallery of Art hosted a public symposium in honor of its first exhibition devoted to a living photographer: Robert Frank: Moving Out. The exhibition was drawn largely from the Robert Frank Collection given by the artist to the Gallery in 1990. Including 157 photographs, a book, and 2 videos, the show featured Frank’s early work in Switzerland, as well as images from his travels in Peru, France, Spain, England, and the United States. Robert Delpire, Allen Ginsberg, Jonas Mekas, and Ed Grazda, Frank's close friends who influenced his life and career, participated in this symposium. Robert Frank: Moving Out was on view at the National Gallery of Art from October 2 through December 3, 1994.

Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997), poet. On October 15, 1994, the National Gallery of Art hosted a public symposium in honor of its first exhibition devoted to a living photographer: Robert Frank: Moving Out. The exhibition was drawn largely from the Robert Frank Collection given by the artist to the Gallery in 1990. Including 157 photographs, a book, and 2 videos, the show featured Frank’s early work in Switzerland, as well as images from his travels in Peru, France, Spain, England, and the United States. Robert Delpire, Allen Ginsberg, Jonas Mekas, and Ed Grazda, Frank's close friends who influenced his life and career, participated in this symposium. Robert Frank: Moving Out was on view at the National Gallery of Art from October 2 through December 3, 1994.

Emmet Gowin, photographer and professor of visual arts, Princeton University. In the first of two lectures honoring the exhibition Stieglitz in the Darkroom, on view at the National Gallery of Art from October 4, 1992, to February 14, 1993, photographer Emmet Gowin shares the relevance of Alfred Stieglitz's (1864-1946) work to his own. The exhibition of 75 photographic prints, chosen from the "key set" of 1,600 photographs given to the Gallery by Georgia O'Keeffe in 1949 and 1980, spanned Stieglitz's career. It demonstrated how a photographer can alter the aesthetics of his art and meaning through cropping, scale, tone, paper selection, and printing process- and also the extraordinary commitment a photographer has to his work. One of the most important photographers of his generation, Gowin (born 1941) is the son of a Methodist minister and considered America and Alfred Stieglitz (1934) to be his second bible. For this lecture recorded on November 29, 1992, Gowin used the title of his undergraduate senior thesis, demonstrating his strong connection with Stieglitz and Robert Frank's The Americans (1958). Tracing the influence of Stieglitz throughout his career, Gowin shares how his work transitioned from photographing primarily human beings to making aerial photographs of toxic waste sites and nuclear reservations.

Photographer Garry Winogrand (1928–1984) is known for his sweeping portrait of American life during the postwar decades. His photographs powerfully combine the hope and exhilaration as well as the anxiety and turbulence that characterized America during these vital years, revealing a country that glitters with possibility but also threatens to spin out of control. In 1977, Winogrand was invited by photographer and professor Geoff Winningham to speak with students at Rice University in Houston. For more than two hours, Winogrand entertained questions from students on a broad array of topics; a selection from this seminar is shown here. This video was produced by the National Gallery of Art in conjunction with the exhibition Garry Winogrand, organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. © Geoff Winningham, 1977