Confrontations and Dialogues: The Figure in Photography

Confrontations and Dialogues: The Figure in Photography  investigates the subject of the human figure over the fifty-year period from 1920 to 1970, and features the work of such masters as Diane Arbus, Wynn Bullock, Barbara Morgan, Imogen Cunningham, and Edward Weston.

The subject-spectator relationship in the medium of photography is profound and seldom passive. "Engaged" viewing, or absorption in the photographic image can be especially strong when the subject is figurative. An intimate dialogue takes place, whether the figure is treated with the interactive frontality of Imogen Cunningham's Warning  or with the formal detachment of an Edward Weston nude composition. Barbara Morgan's celebrated portrait of dancer Martha Graham, or a glimpse into the world of Diane Arbus, become engaging confrontations with life's rythms.

Other photographs on view in the exhibition are images by Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Eugene Atget, Ruth Bernhard, Harry Callahan, Judy Dater, Roy De Carava, Robert Frank, Robert Heinecken, Andre Kertesz, Ralph Eugene Meatyard, Roger Mertin, Duane Michaels, Arnold Newman, Jerry Uelsmann, Todd Walker, and Minor White.