Audio Tour - Facing the Lens

Harrison Photography Gallery 365

1201 - Introduction to the Exhibition
with Christian Peterson, Associate Curator of Photography and New Media

Portraiture is one of the oldest, most enduring, and constant genres of image making, across all artistic mediums. From the beginning of photography, in 1839, the vast majority of subjects placed before the camera have been human beings. Most people believe in the verisimilitude of the medium because photographs are taken directly from nature and usually do not involve the hand of the artist. Photographic portraits are thus thought to perfectly depict the physical-and sometimes even spiritual-characteristics of the sitter.

Photographers are accustomed to being behind the camera, shooting with it, and seeing the results of their efforts. But many are also comfortable situating themselves in front of a lens, either their own or that of another artist. This exhibition includes self-portraits, revealing how photographers perceive themselves, and portraits by other photographers, in which an outside perspective is brought to bear. Drawn largely from the museum's permanent collection, the exhibition features photographs dating from the 1880s to within the last decade.

The photographers in the show have various outlooks and use different strategies in their work, revealing as much about themselves as about their subjects. Some use the eye of the photographer as a metaphor for seeing. Others resort to multiple images, believing it folly to think a solitary image of an individual can fully represent the subject. And some radical portraitists include neither the face nor even a body part of their subject, opting instead for surrogate objects to offer a more nuanced story about the sitter.

People pictures have been ubiquitous in our everyday lives for decades. Consider your driver's license picture, which resides nearby in your purse or wallet, ready to be pulled out for instant identification. Do you really look like that?