Review/Photography; A Glimpse of the 40's and 50's at the Met Museum

I love the 40's, the clothes the images, the way of life a simpler yet still socially complex time of history.  To me there is something so interesting about the way in which people lived in the 40's that fascinates me so when i saw a review of an exhibition from the 40's and 50's my interest was immediate.

In Andy Grundberg review of the art exhibit, A Glimpse of the 40's and 50's at the Met Museum he provides historical context for the inspiration of the photos and highlights the comparisons between the seemingly very different photographers.  The exhibit was organized by Morris Hambour, the museum's photography curator, and she did so in such a way so that viewers could appreciate the "major stylistic impulses of those years without drastically oversimplifying them."  This first photograph above is a Sid Grossman photo entitled Harlem, New York from 1939.  It is one of his earlier pieces but the exhibition too was started with one of his pieces, Seagulls, (which I could not find a image of) but was used to introduce the rest of exhibition.   

 Grundberg described it's use as "an essential clue to what follows: verging on overall, nearly chaotic pattern, it is less about the seagulls it putatively depicts than about a pervasive urge toward abstraction in photography."  The rest of the exhibit is organized into a Cool Zone and a Hot Zone.  Artists depicted in the Cool Zone include, Aaron Siskind, Bill Brandt, Irving Penn and Otto Steinert, Mr. Callahan, Mr. Metzker and Mr. Tomatsu.  Those artists depicted in the Hot Zone include Robert Frank, Mr. Klein, Garry Winogrand, Lisette Model, Leon Levinstein.  Throughout both rooms the photographers shy away from describing the world in perfect texture and detail and if we ignore the "emotional temperatures" of the room overtones of futurism.  The photo on the top left is by William Klein and shows his common technique of blurring out the image.  The bottom photo is by Bill Brandt, and the two photos together give examples of work by an artist in the Cool Zone and one in the Hot Zone.  I really enjoyed how accessible Grundberg mde the exhibition.  Even though it was difficult to find images from the actual show, from his description and contextual evidence I think I would be able to walk through it and identify the different zones of hot and cold and appreciate that the artists were attempting to do at the time.