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Summer 1984


Articles
Collections

   by Paul Hester
     Photographic enterprise is simulta­neously the stilling of our present and the prediction of a future long­ing for an invented past.     Even the most "artistic" photographic activities are occupied with this crea­tion of memories- Cindy Sherman. Ansel Adams, and Henri-Cartier-Bresson all come to mind.      Williams Ivins wrote in Prints and Vi­sual Communication, "at any given mo­ment the accepted report of an event is of greater importance that the event, for what we think about and act upon is the sym­bolic report and not the concrete event itself." Our photographically manufac­tured memories are therefore the evidence through which we interpret our history.      For these reasons this issue of Image examines some of the collective memories that are being stored for our future. All of the collections listed are living, growing organisms continually put to all sorts of uses. In analysis of their ingredients and the criteria for their formulation, we can penetrate the mysticism that surrounds pho­tography's elevation to high-art status, and move toward an understanding of how photographic meaning is constructed.      Photographs mean something; we look with the certainty that we will know more afterwards- We look for information, we look to be moved, we look for pleasure, we look for titillation.      It really seems that we look at photographs to be somewhere else, to be someone else. Aren't we expecting something for nothing? We want the experience without the risk. Magically, without the slightest effort, we will be given knowledge of what the earth looks like from the moon. No pull of gravity as we escape the earth, no long wait as we travel this great distance.     Look at a globe. The names are familiar; each one comes with a picture. But it is only a still from all the movies we've seen, the past issues of National Geographic* or footage from the ten o'clock news. Travel pictures from exotic places are an example of how we attach meaning to ignorance. Specifically, we value that which we do not understand. An unknown place depicted in a travel pic­ture offers both the illusion of what it was like to be there and the reminder that we still don't know the place.      But the photograph simplifies for us. It gives us a report by which we may categorize an entire place and the experience of being there. Therefore, we remember the report and the place and soon forget that we have never been there.      In the course of researching this issue, I was reminded of a movie from the 1960s in which Terence Stamp plays an inhibited butterfly collector who kidnaps Samantha Eggars and adds her to his collection by locking her in the basement. The perversity of his act is present in the making of each photograph, and multiplied a thousand times in the preservation of photography. Dead bodies and movie stills have only a distant relationship to live action. But this is the alarming basis for an obsession with aesthetic fetishes. When we accept photographs as aesthetic objects, their social his­tories disappear. Our adulation of masterpieces and our fascination with the form of the image replace the essential question of meaning. We lose the impetus to think about the implications of what we see.      In particular, we are seduced by nostal­gia to see in photographs what is missing from our moment- How does a photo­graph supply this knowledge? It is up to us to provide the happy ending because the consequences of an action are never revealed. The before and after, the prior conditions and the possible results of this decisive moment are like the unknown places in travel pictures. Through our ig­norance or knowledge of history we deter­mine the context that gives the frozen still its meaning. The myth of a universal art pretends to appeal across class lines and economic barriers- Meanwhile, we lose sight of situations in which choices are made, and we repress the social attitudes which are the basis for our readings of photography.      What is critical to this examination of photographic collections is an increased awareness not only of the collection, but also of the necessity for their renewed reading. We rely heavily on the authority of publishers and cul­tural institutions to define significance in our visual records. Art-sanctioned photographs are in danger of being misappropriated from the realm of ethical decisions, and at the same time of out­weighing by sheer status other valuable images that have so much to tell us.      This has become a warning when it was merely intended as a reminder. The guardians of our memories are generous and en­thusiastic. The photographs are available for the construction of new meanings. The question remains: once enshrined, how freely can we re-interpret them?      What is offered here is a sampling of the kinds of collections that exist, it is not definitive, but intended to represent a variety of the contexts in which photography functions.      Most of the collections are public collections and generally offer a continuing exhibition of some portion of their holdings. Please remember that public institutions are overworked and underpaid and be tolerant of their limited access. All that are open to the public welcome serious students to view their collections, but please call for an appointment.      The Texas Historical Foundation, a private, non-profit organiza­tion in Austin is in the midst of a two-year study of all the pho­tography collections in Texas. A two volume set to be published by the University of Texas Press in 1985 will catalog the institu­tions, photographers, and subjects in an effort to promote historical photography and the need to preserve and care for it. The second volume will publish the work of fifteen Texas photographers who have been commissioned to photograph the state in celebration of Sesquicentenial. Any institutions that have not been contacted are urged to send a notice to Richard Pearce-Moses, The Texas Historical Foundation, P. O. Box 12243, Capital Station, Austin, TX 78711.


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Art Museums
by Paul Hester
    Under the banner of saving photography, several divi­sions are apparent. Art museums approach photographic images with a concern for rarity. The ex­clusive nature of their collections is based on a definition of quality borrowed from connoisseurship that exaggerates the cult of beauty and denies any social reading of images. Certain approaches to photographic imagemaking have until recently been excluded. But, as definitions of art have shifted, museum concepts of quality have expanded to include documentary work sponsored by the stale, advertising and fashion images commissioned by corporate clients, and gravures from the pages of magazines.
    Formal attributes are no longer the sole criteria for admission to this particular arena which con­tinues to serve as the stamp of
approval for so many aspiring photographers. The value of museum collections is the preser­vation of highly esteemed prac­titioners who have gained signif­icant respect in the realm of art. and the direction of our attention toward newer talent whose work does not fit existing categories and who might otherwise be dismissed as merely unconventional. No doubt about it, inclusion within a museum collection is significant resume material, and an indication of the seriousness of the pho­tographer.
    The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFA), has a vigorous program in photography. In spite of the physical limitations, it is possible for serious viewers to make appointments to look at the permanent collection. Through the generous contributions of the Target Stores and other bene­factors, the Museum has a wide assortment of name photographers represented by one or two prints, and several in-depth portfolios to represent certain photographers like Robert Frank. Edward Steichen. Eliot Portcr, Lewis Baltz, and John Heartfield, One wishes for more space that could permanently display a larger por­tion of the collection, but The Museum has done a good job of integrating particular images into context with other art of their period, as well as a changing wall of new acquisitions and small theme shows that one can view on the way to the Museum movies. The Romansky Gallery provides a special place for works on paper, but this alternates shows between prints and photographs.
    The power of museums to influ­ence directions in photography does not seem as omnipotent as it once did when the Museum of Modern Art [MOMA| in New York was one of the very few sources of validation for photographers working outside of the Life magazine mode. The pluralistic growth of photographic styles and the linkage of the MO MA to curator John Szarkowski's particular approach to photography has appeared to limit the domination of MOMA (and, perhaps, other museums) in photography. MFA Curator Anne Tucker, who interned with Szarkowski at MOMA and with Nathan Lyons at Visual Studies Workshop, does not seem to have such a strict definition of photography. Her acquisitions are wide-ranging, her efforts to build a broad, historically significant collection are dependent upon her ability (o attract financial backing for the Museum's photography program. She has managed to enlist major corporate support on several projects, and continues to interest local photographic enthu­siasts to follow her lead in chart­ing new territory, for example, in her pursuit of European and Jap­anese additions to the collection.
    As of January 1984, the MFA had 2,801 photographs. Over 1,500 were made by Americans in the years 1945 to the present, but over 300 represented nineteenth century Europe, and ninety came from l9th century Japan. Almost 200 photographs in the Museum came from Europe between the beginning of World War I and the end of World War II; more, in fact, than from the United States in the same period.
    The other art collection in town with a significant number of prints is the Menil Collection. Last seen by the public in an exhibition at the Rice Museum curated by Beaumont Newhall and entitled Transfixed by Light, this collection of over 1000 prints is not currently available to the public Upon the completion of the new facilities for the Menil Collection (around the comer from the Houston Cen­ter for Photography), the photo­graphs will be open for research, by appointment, by scholars and serious students.
    The collection contains 390 photographs by Henri Cartier-Bresson, selected by the photog­rapher and grouped within a geo­graphical framework, it is the only such set in the United States. The other images in the collection reflect the particular interests of Dominique dc Menil, such as im­ages by black photographers Roy DeCarava and James Van Der Zee. The Surrealists are repre­sented by Man Ray, Clarence John Laughlin. and Eugene Atget. Danny Lyons has a significant number of images in the collec­tion, including several from his project on Texas prisons that was published as Conversations with the Dead. Brassai., Harry Callahan, Edward Curtis, Fred­erick Evans, Lewis Hine, Andre Kertesz, and Ansel Adams are among those with works in the collection. It is still growing; the new director of the Menil Collec­tion, Walter Hopps, has added several photographs by Walker Evans and William Christenberry.
    The Menil Foundation also funds an unusual collection of photographs that falls between the standard categories of institutional collecting- The twenty-year-old black iconography project, con­taining some 20,000 images, is currently located in a small house in Montrose. Originated to pro­duce a publication tracing the changes in the representation of blacks from the third millennium BC to the early 20th century, the research has gathered images from all sorts of sources. It has pur­chased photographs from museums, galleries, government agencies such as the National Park Service, New York City boroughs, archeological sites, libraries, and churches. It has also commissioned two separate photographic campaigns to pro­duce original material of three-di­mensional objects in France, Italy, Egypt. and the Sudan.
The archives include photo­graphs of paintings, drawings, prints, sculpture, vases, manu­scripts, stained glass windows, tapestries. Civil War memorials, vernacular objects such as weathervanes and cigar advertising, as well as work by Winslow Homer, Thomas Eakins, Joshua Reynolds, Memling, Delacroix, Jheronimus Bosch and Thomas Nast. Not just fine-looking art objects, there are many racist images as well as beautiful images.
The images are meticulously catalogued to record the location of the original piece, the artist, the medium, and the subject. The photographs themselves are ar­ranged chronologically within the categories of the original medium, divided into antiquity, middle ages, and after.
    These photographs, unfortu­nately, are also unavailable to the public at this time. Their number continues to grow with active research. After a complete organ­ization, the photographs will be available to historians for schol­arly research. A peculiar aspect of the collection is that a duplicate of the archives, including negatives, is housed in Paris for research in Europe. It’s just another one of the uses of photography and its deli­cate interchange between art and history.
 

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Rice Tsu Uh
by Paul Hester
    My expectation at the begin­ning of this search was to discover forgotten treasure on the shelves of some back room. It almost happened in the Special Collections Room of the Univer­sity of Houston's Anderson Li­brary. Acting Head Gene Jackson and Wendy Sterba, Senior Library Assistant, came up with a card­board box filled with turn-of-the-century glass plate negatives. These wonderful images document the F. W. Heitmann Company, the first exclusive iron dealers in Texas. Stacks of galvanized buck­ets, bundles of wire, binds of hard­ware and parts, each immortalized with their own 8 x 10 inch glass image in excellent condition. Out­standing in the group were several office interiors with the boss at his rolltop desk and his secretary tak­ing notes. In one it was possible to read the date of March, 1909, on the calendar. Another showed wagons pulled by horses being loaded in front of a building with faces peering from the windows. In addition to these glass plates by George Beach, the boxes contain­ed two framed prints by Joseph Litterst of two young children on Christmas morning with their new pony,
    Houston's institutions are too young to have collected the rare volumes filled with original prints that preceeded the invention of half-tone reproductions. The li­braries of the University of Hous­ton, Texas Southern University, and Rice University primarily con­tain photographs relating to their own histories. Each welcome in­terested viewers, and an increased demand and awareness of the value of their photographic hold­ings should encourage more fund­ing for these areas.
    The Rice University archives in the Woodson Research Center of Fondren Library go back to the opening of the school in 1912, with numerous panoramas of the campus when the few buildings were the only things standing on open prairie. One admires the audacity, courage, and faith of those dreamers who planted two-inch oak trees in such straight lines. A 1921 album The Flying Owls pictures the growing campus from the air, A wonderful series of 8 x 10 contact prints by Frank Schlueter mark the changing styles at "The Garden Party,” held each June following commencement in the shadows of the Physics Build­ing. The early "candids" show how the cultural elite relaxed and enjoyed themselves, standing around in the Texas summer in formal attire. Several snapshot albums donated to the archives show the casual side of student life in the 1920s.
    The Special Collections at the University of Houston Anderson Library contain the George Fuermann Collection of photographs and prints related to the history of Houston. Some arc copy prints of older Houston, but many come from Feurmann's tenure as editor of the editorial page at The Houston Post. The Special Collections also contain several drawers of 5 x 7 negatives of mug shots of under­graduates from the 1940s and 1950s, in their mass a strong study of the physiognomy of the early student body.
    Texas Southern University Li­brary contains, — in addition to the usual institutional archives of portraits and public relations poses, - the Barbara Jordan Ar­chives, which trace her career from her election as the first black woman to serve in the Texas Senate through her years of ser­vice in Washington as a member of the U.S. House of Represen­tatives. The Archives picture her with the black congressional caucus, and with the white male power structure represented by Lyndon Johnson, Gerald Ford, and Jimmy Carter.
    The Heartman Collection of TSU has two dozen intriguing 19th century photographs by com­mercial photographers in Florida, Alabama, and New York. Some portray well-to-do black families in formal poses; some are docu­mentary images of black living conditions on plantations, and some are racist attempts at "black humor." depicting young blacks playing banjos while stuffed alli­gators nibble from behind.
    The Art Department of the University has a growing print collection that contains four port­folios of photographs by Garry Winogrand, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Robert Doisneau, and Elliot Erwitt. Each is from an edition of 100 and contains fifteen prints-Published by Hyperion Press, they are an uneven mixture of each photographer's better known im­ages and lesser known ones. The Winogrands stand out from the group as a consistently high level of powerful images that cover twenty years of his life, with particularly strong ones chosen from the group published as Public Relations.
    Coincidentally, the Art Depart­ment at Rice University includes the same four portfolios by the same four photographers by the same publisher. It also includes a number of photographs from the Farm Security Administration Col­lection of the Library of Congress see- Photograph: Where to Buy, page 00. These 35 photographs were purchased in conjunction with a symposium and exhibition at the University in the spring of 1976 and are by Walker Evans, John Vacon, Carl Mydans, Arthur Rothstein, Russell Lee, and Doro­thea Lange. The Art Department also owns images by Richard Pipes, a very good photojournalist working in Houston in the 1960s and 1970s; Andre Kertesz's Hungarian Rhapsodies portfolio; a portfolio of color prints by John Lee Simons of Texas WPA murals; Widelux prints from Geoff Winningham’s graduate work at the In­stitute of Design; and five extraor­dinary vintage prints by Lewis W. Hine from 1909 through 1917.

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Private
by Gary Faye
    Collecting photographs is exciting. It is also challeng­ing, fulfilling, profitable, and fun. These are some of the views ex­pressed by several Houston collec­tors. They share a common enthu­siasm and pride for their photo­graphs, and each collection has its own distinct character. While they are aware of investment value, their purchases are finally made for a very personal reason: "be­cause I liked it." Though most of the photographs have appreciated considerably in value, none of the collectors has realized the profits in a sale. They love the prints too much to let them go,
Petra Benteler, owner of Benteler Galleries, began collecting in 1975 and bought "Allee", her first print, while still a student of pho­tography in Germany. The nega­tive was made in 1923 by Renger-Patzsch. Her next find was a 1907 Kuhn photograph of a woman and child. She already collected works in other media by artists she knew, but there was something very different about collecting photographs. Six months after completing her studies. Petra decided to become a dealer and eventually to open a gallery, something she thought she would never do. Interested in "straight" photography, she started collecting European images of the ‘20s and '30s, focusing initially on the work of the "Neue Sachlichkeit," the trend of the New Objectivity.
In 1978, she bought her first American photographs. Her col­lection has grown to include work by Steichen and more contempor­ary work by Callahan, Shore, and Slavin and is no longer restricted to any particular period, Petra is drawn to color as well as black & white, and her interests include people, landscape, and still Life. None of her personal collection has been sold.
    Benteler notes that while photo­graphers express themselves through their work, her own per­sonal expression is through curating shows and designing catalogs. With a warm gesture toward a superbly hung exhibit, she said. This is my art.' Her contribution in bringing this work lo our attention is an important one indeed. Her gallery, located at 2409 Rice Boulevard in the Rice Village, is devoted exclusively to European photography.
    The issue of "photography as art" was settled for collector John Cleary at a 1978 Cronin Gallery exhibit of Ansel Adams' work. Before that, he had read only one article on the medium, but he immediately recognized the quality of Adams' pictures. An experienced stockbroker, well grounded in collecting other art (graphics, books, and antiques). John was initially cautious and waited four years to make his first purchase, 'Carousel- by Doisneau. Four more Doisneau photographs followed. The collection rapidly expanded to include vintage as well as contemporary European and American photographs. The oldest- "Men of the 68th Regi­ment" — a Crimean War pho­tograph by Roger Fenton, dates back to 1856. Other early pur­chases were Civil War images by O’Sullivan      and Barnard. His favor­ite acquisition is an original issue of Camerawork with 17 original Steichen gravures. He is still look­ing for the right Steichen silver print.
    John's constant research and study of photography has resulted in a collection of some sixty major prints, and library of over one hundred books. The collection is about half American and almost completely black and white. It includes people and landscapes from artists like Edward S. Curtis, Bravo, Cartier-Bresson, and Ansel Adams.
    Asked about the ultimate direc­tion of his collection, John an­swered. "I would eventually like to include work by all the major contemporary photographers.' a task not nearly as ambitious as it would be in sculpture or painting. "Photography is so much more affordable." he said.
    Unlike many collectors. John is not a photographer himself, preferring to spend his free lime acquiring new knowledge of the medium - its techniques, styles, artists, and rare images.
    Mike Marvin's background in photography dates back gen­erations. He comes from a family of portrait photographers and when he's not behind the camera making his own pictures, he re­searches the work of outers for his extensive collection. He began col­lecting only five years ago after taking a course on collecting pho­tographs at Rice. His intense in­terest in history is reflected in the vintage prints that form the bulk of his collection. His ambition is to have examples of work repre­senting every major photographic period and process.
    His first purchase was "Mother and Father," a silver print by Lartigue. Gravures by Alvin Langdon Coburn followed. Other gravures include a 1915 Steiglitz, "City Across the River," another hand-pulled 1911 gravure by Cobum. and a set of Strand's images from Camerawork. His earliest photograph is a Henry Fox Talbot calotypc. "Bust of Patroculus." made in 1841 only two years after photography began. Another calotypc is an 1851 Roger Fenton Civil War photograph of "Col. Shadford and the 5th Regiment."
    The collection also ranges from samples of albumen printing, such as Alexander Gardner's "Fairfax Courthouse" and G.N. Barnard's "Whiteside Valley Below the Bridge," to platinum prints by Gertrude Kascbicr and Edward S, Curtis.
    Because collecting vintage pho­tography demands careful study. Mike has accumulated a sizable library of reference books. Early photographers didn't produce near­ly as many prints as our contem­poraries do. and often work was unsigned, making identification and authentication difficult. But that makes the discoveries more rewarding.
    Mike's interests are not limited to the 19th century. He has many excellent examples of contempor­ary photography such as Kertesz' "Hands and Glasses", and prints by Eugene Smith. Carrier- Bres­son, and Bravo. The collection is evenly divided between portrait and non-portrait, European and American, and Mike still buys what he likes, even if it has nothing to do with the direction of the collection.
    The prints usually come from auctions and travelling dealers, and Marvins has teamed up with friend John Cleary lo make joint purchases. By pooling their re­sources theyfound they could invest in work that they wouldn't buy as individuals. This way they can both enjoy the work at half the cost. Two recent joint ventures are an Eliot Porter portfolio and a set of Edward Curtis photograv­ures. Mike feels the current low prices brought on by a depressed market provide a once-in-a-life­time opportunity for collectors.
    Photographer Gay Block be­came interested in photography in 1971. as a student of architec­ture. She began making photo­graphs in 1973 as an extension of that work. By 1974, she was studying at the Rice Media Center with Geoff Winningham and her career goals had switched com­pletely to photography. About that time, she began collecting.
    Her first two prints were by Cartier-Bresson - one from Greece, the other from India. Ad­ditions to the collection centered on the human experience: portraits and suspended moments in daily life. Although most of the work is contemporary, there are earlier photographs too. such as a 1915 August Sander portrait, a circa 1910 Bellocq (printed by Lee Friedlander), and two Strand por­traits from the 1920s and 1930s.
    She lives with the work all around her. Most of it is intense and magnetic: Bill Brandt's por­trait of Francis Bacon (one of her favorites), a Winogrand portfolio, and Larry Fink's pictures energize the room. An entire portfolio by Lisette Model is tightly grouped on one wall, the frames forming a grid from which life situations radiate. The effect is electric.
    When asked what she feels is important in a portrait. Gay replied, "That one human being -for a moment - is somehow con­nected to another human being."
    Art dealer Clint Wiltour's in­terest in collecting photographs evolved from a friendship with local gallery owners Tony and Robin Cronin in 1976. Through them he met Anne Tucker, curator of photography for the Museum of Fine Arts, Hous­ton, and his awareness of the medium developed further. First he acquired an Eliot Porter tree portrait, followed by Kipton Kumlcr's "Banana Leaves", Clint describes both of these pieces as very safe, conservative beginnings that were supplemented by more adventurous purchases later.
    Clint thoroughly enjoys the prints he has acquired and talks about them with great enthusiasm, telling anecdotal stories about some of his purchases with warm humor. His next purchase, for example, came in March of 1977 at a benefit auction for the Con­temporary Arts Museum where he bought a Gerald Moorhead print of "two Mardi Gras drag queens" for only $10. He added that there are excellent and provocative pho­tographs available for very little money.
    In the beginning, his collection centered on landscape or urban subjects; the people photographs came later. Being a director of the Watson-De Nagy Gallery, a dealer in fine art, Clint has a very paint­erly sensibility, yet he initially resisted collecting color photo­graphs. Ironically, his first pur­chase was a color print. Today, thebulk of his collection is black and white, although 10-20 percent is color, hand-colored or toned. He also has albumen and palla­dium prints, Type C and dye-transfer color prints.
    Clint's approach to collecting is unusual, in that he never sets out to buy a print he has seen previ­ously. He feels that popular im­ages can be enjoyed at gallery shows, museum exhibits, or in excellent reproductions. He buys prints that please him and has no particular limitations other than budget and personal taste. He is less concerned with investment value than with visual impact and says he will eventually donate all the photographs to the MFA. The collection has a strong otherworld­ly quality and includes work by George Tice, George Krause, Bruce Davidson. Clarence John Laughlin, Bravo, Arbus. and Richard Misrach.
    Clint delights in the work of unknown or little-known artists. While he buys from dealers across the country, he takes a strong interest in the local scene, and is a frequent juror and supporter of student exhibitions
 
(Private, continued by Paul Hester)
    Wally Wilson's strong interest in photography came about through his interest in art in gen­eral. His company, Wilson Indus­tries, has an important art collec­tion that has been very supportive of local artists. Photography was scheduled to be the next area of concentration for the company's purchases, but that has been de­layed by the slowdown in Hous­ton‘s economy. The percentage of the collection now devoted to photography is very small, but il does include work by Suzanne Bloom (from her White Oak Bayou series), Casey Williams. Sally Gall. Buddy demons, and Peter Brown. Wilsons definition of local has stretched lo include work from Garry Winogrand’s rodeo series, and pictures by William Christenberry from Southern Exposure.
The company was advised on its purchases by Joan Seeman-Robinson, who works as an indepen­dent art consultant. Wilson began buying from the Cronin Gallery, then moved to Mancini Gallery, Texas Gallery, and more recently, to Benteler Gallery. He also likes to buy at auctions and from deal­ers in New York such as Peter MacGill, who was at Light Gal­lery and is now in a joint venture with Pace Galleries.
    Wilson's interests have tended toward a concentration in one period, such as European work from the 1900s and 1930s, to con­temporary European. He now fol­lows a few contemporary photog­raphers, such as Nic Nicosia. He is not buying much now, but is looking a great deal. He feels a practical consideration in the in­creased size of recent work, and the problems of where to put them.
    Wilson stresses that his small personal collection is not a museum-type vintage collection, but includes recent prints by some of the same photographers seen in museums. Two of the more familiar contemporary names he mentions are Lee Friedlandcr and Len Gensell.          
Buddy Clemons went to a New York auction in 1978 with a good chunk of money that he'd made from a real estate deal. He had been making photographs since he'd edited the yearbook at Lamar High School, and had pur­chased from Robin Cronin his First photograph, a Bill Brandt image of London rooftops. In that first auction at Christie's he bought over two dozen photographs and had such a good lime that he went back for three years in a row. It was at that point that he opened his gallery. But after disappointing sales with such names as Eisenstadt, Callahan, and Erwjtt, he became convinced that Houston didn't have enough serious collec­tors to support such expensive ex­hibitions. After all, the biggest buyers could go to New York directly. He also discovered that he missed the prints after he'd sold them. This coincided with his realization that Houston was more willing to support a moderately priced regional photographer than expensive national names; conse­quently, he pulled all of his col­lection out of the gallery and now deals exclusively in the photog­rapher whose work outsells all the others: Buddy Clemons.
    Meanwhile, his collection has grown to great proportions and in­cludes an unusual print by Diane Arbus, less-well known images by Ansel Adams, and a vintage Walker Evans from his early work at Coney Island. Portraits of ac­tors and actresses such as Greta Garbo, Marilyn Monroe, Ingrid Bergman, and Marlon Brando are a significant portion of the collec­tion that stems from Buddy's love of the movies. Elliott Erwitt's photograph of Jackie Kennedy on the day of President Kennedy's funeral is a powerful addition to the portraits of his collection.
    Frequently Clemons opts to buy a less familiar image by a photog­rapher rather than the more iden­tifiable trademarks. These offer different perspectives on the per­son's approach to photography, and are often less expensive than the more frequently seen ones the photographer has grown tired of printing. "I've always bought because I like the photographer. If you’re collecting to make money, forget it. Real estate goes up a lot faster."
Fredericka Hunter and lan Glennie bought their first photograph in the late 1960s from 10th Street Gallery in New York City. That Duane Michals print has been joined by more than 200 other photographs. They remem­ber writing to Lee Fricdlander in the 1960s after seeing in Holiday magazine one of his pictures of Lucy the Elephant, an architec­tural novelty in Atlantic City. They never bought that picture, but since have become good friends with the photographer and have several Friedlander photographs including the portfolio produced in collaboration with art­ist Jim Dine, Work from the Same House. Personal reverberations of things remembered are an important cri­terion for their collecting, and a second major emphasis is eroti­cism, including work by Larry Clark and Robert Mapplethorpe.
    A friendship with Danny Lyon when he was photographing Texas prisons led to acquisition of his work.
    In the 1970s they relied heavily on the advice of Robin and Tony Cronin during the time their two galleries were close together. First on Bissonnet and later in the River Oaks Center. Photographers they collected from that time include Nicholas Nixon, Tod Papageorge and Ed Grazda.    
Through shows in their own Texas Gallery, they have acquired work by Cindy Sherman, William Wegman, Eve Sonneman, Laurie Simmons, Richard Prince, and Ellen Carrie.
    They do not collect much vin­tage work, but the cool, intellec­tual work of Walker Evans is in their collection as is work by Bill Brandt from his English Life series.
    They feel that it is important to encourage contemporary artists, and they buy whenever they can. They own the work of several local photographers including Suzanne Paul, Sally Gall, and Casey Williams, whom they also represent.

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National
by Paul Hester
    Imagine a single collection con­taining Matthew Brady's glass negatives of the Civil War. Timo­thy O'Sullivan's gold-toned albumen prints from geological surveys of the West in the 1860s and 1870s, surveys of the effects of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Dorothea Lange's negatives of the relocation of Americans of Japanese descent during World War Il, and photo­graphs by Ansel Adams of na­tional parks and monuments.     These and five million other still picture items are part of the National Archives in Washington. D.C. Overshadowed by the fame of the Library of Congress, the Archives was established in 1934 to document the activities of 125 Federal agencies. Records of the Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine contain 2.825 items made between 1870 and 1946; the National Archives Collection of Foreign Records Seized contains 323,797 items including photo­graphs by the official photographer of the Nationalist Socialist Party and photographs collected by Eva Braun pertaining to her personal and social life 1913-1944; the Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs includes portraits by Alex­ander Gardner of tribal delegations to the Federal Government in 1872; the Records of the Geolog­ical Survey contain photographs by William H. Jackson of Yel­lowstone and the Grand Tetons; The Records of the Office of War Information contains 206,100 items including women's fashions, the role of the Negro in industry and government, concentration camps, and the funeral of Franklin D. Roosevelt,     The beauty of this bounty is availability; anyone can order prints from the archives, with an 8x10 prim costing only $5.75. Many of the original materials are vintage, of course, and what you get is a prim From a copy negative The major disadvantage of this collection is the difficulty of dis­covering what's there. A request for general information brings an order form, a list of 407 separate record groups with brief descrip­tions of their contents, and several brochures focusing on particular subjects such as the Civil War. the American West, Indians, and the American City.     A Researchers Guide to the National Archives begins. "As the central depository for the Nation's permanently valuable records, the National Archives serves as the nation's memory." Unfortunately, all the information I received was written: page after page of tanta­lizing description, but only one image on the cover of each leaflet. The Archives will search its files for a limited number of items if you send a specific request listing names, dates, and events. You are also offered the lists of profes­sional researchers, Imagine being paid to scavenge these files!     Finally, there is no substitute for being there - (here in this case is the Still Picture Branch Research Room which is open Mon­day through Friday from 8:45am to 5pm, How are you going to know what's there until you see those hand-colored stereoscopic photo­graphs of game birds, beaver, and ermine made in 1870 and part of the Records of the Fish and Wild­life Service?  

 


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Houston, Austin
by Becky Ross
    The original idea of comparing the historical collections in Austin and Houston brought to mind the major differences be­tween the two cities: their size, sense of community, political climate, money and status. Sur­prisingly, however, after visiting the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center and the Austin History Center in Austin and the Harris County Heritage Society and the Houston Metropolitan Research Center in Houston, I found the greatest differences dependent on the type of collec­tion and its purpose, rather than the city that contains it.
    The Austin History Center (AHC) and the Houston Metro­politan Research Center (HMRC) are both funded by public librar­ies; the centers have a homey feel, and their staff members are very conscious of their duty to the full variety of people who form the general public. The Harris County Heritage Society is similar to the AHC and the HMRC, but due to its lesser funding it has an even cozier viewing space.
The Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, while also encouraging public use. contains more exotic items that set it apart as a center intended for more traditional academic research. There are, however, similarities between the four collections. All contain both 19th and 20th century works, both photographs and neg­atives, and black and white and color works. All the images are archivally stored, with nitrate negatives kepi separately in cooler rooms to lessen fire hazards. Each center has provisions for the sale of copy prints, though prices and methods vary. Best of all, each of
these breathtaking collections is free and open to the public.
    In the world of historical collec­tions, the Harry Ransom Humani­ties Research Center (HRHRC) stands out as the best in the Southwest, and one of the best in the world. It is a massive collec­tion of photographs, camera equip­ment, manuscripts, books, theater, and motion picture arts. The HRHRC is part of the University of Texas, and its academic setting is reflected in its goals of meeting faculty teaching needs, supplying research material for the general field of the humanities, and allow­ing viewers to become acquainted with the fine arts.
    Besides being a place for re­searchers and scholars, the HRHRC is a wonderful assem­blage of art and history for all people. The Photography Collec­tion is open Monday through Fri­day from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p,m., with appointments requested, but not required.
    Upon entering the Photography Collection of the HRHRC, the viewer is shown a short slide presentation on the handling of original materials, and then is free to consult the catalog or staff in order to select the desired items for viewing. An excellent multiple access system lists each image by artist, subject, and date of origin. The system is in the process of being automated, and when auto­mation is complete, there will be approximately 20 access points, including listings of the process used in creating the image and the region in which it was produced. The amazing breadth and size of the Photography Collection allows thorough study of both photogra­phers and the period in which they worked. One can sec original prints and then supplement those visual images with books or manu­scripts that the photographer may have written, camera equipment of the same type that he may have used, as well as any motion pic­tures that the photographer may have produced or been influenced by. This experience of surroun­ding oneself with the elements of a specific era can strongly affect one's understanding of a photog­rapher's work.
    The Gernshcim Photography Collection, gathered by two great 20th century photo-histor­ians. Helmut and Alison Gcrnsheim, forms the core of the Pho­tography Collection. Included in the Gernsheim Collection are 19th and 20th century works by noted photographers, a library of books and journals, ranging from the antecedents of photography to the present, numerous examples of the earliest photographic experiments, and several hundred pieces of camera equipment. Some of the best known photographers repre­sented in this collection are Julia Margaret Cameron. Lewis Carroll. D O. Hill and Robert Adamson, and William Henry Fox Talbot. Recent acquisitions of the Photog­raphy Collection include works by well-known 20th century photogra­phers, such as Frederick Sommer, Paul Strand. Harry Callahan, and Lewis Hine, as well as images by such 19th century photographers as Leonard Misonne, H.H. Ben­nett, and George Fiske.
    During my visit to the collec­tion, I proposed a research ques­tion to Roy Flukinger, Curator of the Photography Collection. I have been interested in combining words with photographs for years, and I had previously used the Photography Collection to consult issues of Alfred Stieglitz’s Camera Works. Wanting to see a broader range of work, I asked Mr. Flukinger for other more loose and esoteric examples. Within fifteen minutes I was brought a cart full of beautiful works including 19th century handpainted photo albums, a heavily decorated 19th century book of poetry with original tipped-in photographs, and a re­cent 20th century handmade book of poetry with original archival photographs. Three months later, the memory of these exquisite works is still vivid. Visiting the Harry Ransom Humanities Re­search Center is an intensely up­lifting experience, and one that I highly recommend.
    The Harris County Heritage Society in downtown Houston is the smallest of the four photog­raphy collections I visited. It houses the work from a local photography studio, a few family albums and some purchased pieces. The Harris County Heritage Society (HCHS) is also the most needy of the four in terms of funding and staff. It is a non-profit organization, which receives nearly all of its funds from membership dues and public and corporate donations Through its efforts to document Houston and Harris County history, it has become a storehouse of photo­graphs, negatives, camera equip­ment, antique toys, antique fire equipment, textiles, and decorative art. Although most of the items were donated by Houstonians, some of the images included range far beyond Houston. The major emphasis, however, is Houston, and the photography collection of the HCHS could be envisioned as a gigantic Houston scrapbook. with early photographs of Main Street, grocery store interiors, theaters, company picnics, and more. Most of the photographs, negatives, and camera equipment are from a commercial photog­raphy studio run by the Litterst and Dixon families. The Liuerst-Dixon Collection dates back to 1920. but the HCHS also has photographs dating back to 1853. Most of the photographs made prior to 1914 are amateur snap­shots, studio portraits, street scenes, office interiors and ex­teriors, and company picntes.
    Access to about a third of the photographs is possible by bus­iness or family name, subject, and year with a descriptive worksheet for each image. This type of ex­tensive cataloging is both difficult and time consuming, and because of the limited funding, it is a very slow process. The photography staff at the HCHS consists of only one person. Dannchl Twomey, Registrar and Photography Cura­tor, who is also the curator of the Textile Collection. Ms. TAvomey is responsible for checking exhibition materials in and out, cataloging new acquisitions, setting appoint­ments for people to view the photography collection, and assist­ing those people during their visits. Several Houstonians have helped Ms. Twomcy in identifying the 8.000 currently uncataloged Litterst-Dixon images. HCHS pcr-enially needs volunteer caialogers. and. while not everyone is suited for this kind of work, it can be fun and fulfilling, especially for people who have lived through many of Houston's changes. Archival copies of the photo- graphs are available for $9 per 8x10 or smaller print, if there is a copy negative already in existence. If there is no copy negative, one is made for the HCHS for an ad­ditional cost to the customer of SID Another option for those wishing to purchase a photograph of pre-video-game Houston can be found in the HCHS gift shop, the Yesteryear Shop. It offers a per­manent stock of six different turn­out he-century downtown scenes which are copies of photographs in the collection. These 8x10 prints are available for $15 each.
    Whether or not you choose to lake copy prints home, there are some true jewels among ihe Lil-terst-Dixon Collection that Houstonians. especially, should not miss. As a native Houstonian. 1 look great pleasure in viewing Ihe grocery store and home inter­iors, YMCA team pictures, and panoramic images of church groups. It was as if I were able to go back in time and stand in the midst of these events. Though the experience is very different than that at Ihe HRHRC. its closeness to home is both intriguing and fun. The HCHS does require ap­pointments, and it is open Mon­days through Fridays from 8:30am to 4:30pm.
    Like the Harris County Heritage Society, the Austin History Center exists to provide Travis County residents with the means to discover their own his­torical roots. The Austin History Center contains maps, original plans for Austin, photographs of early Austin and Travis County, and newspaper articles which document the evolution of the Austin and Travis County of today. Unlike the HRHRC and the HCHS, the AHC is a part of the local public library and therefore is funded by the city.
    Most of the photographs in the collection are from Austin news­papers and studio photographers. Major collections include the Chalberg Collection, which con­sists of about 11,000 images from 1870 to 1960, and the Neal Douglass Collection, which con­sists of about 20,000 photographs and 40,000 negatives from the 1940s to the 1960s. The Douglass Collection is comprised of Neal Douglass's studio and commercial work, including images from his work as a staff photographer for the Austin American-Statesman and photographer for the Texas State Legislature.
For those who are interested in 19th century photography, the Austin History Center has work from Hamilton B. Hillyer, Wil­liam J. Oliphant, and Samuel B. Hill, all of whom were Austin photographers. A special item in the Hill Collection is a two-volume set of Views of Texas, printed circa 1900 and illustrated with original tipped-in photo­graphs.
    Most of the photographs are kept in vertical files by subject. If the photograph is a portrait, it is filed under the subject's name: if the subject is a building, then it is filed by street address. The im­ages are also cross-referenced under various subjects and by date.
Because the Center is part of a public library, the staff is very concerned with its duty to the public. This concern is evident in the assistance given to the public and in the policy of not charging a user fee for the publication of prints in the collection. Appoint­ments are not required, and the Austin History Center is open Mondays through Thursdays from 9am to 8:45pm, Fridays and Saturdays from 9am to 5:45pm, and Sundays from 12 noon to 5:45pm. A copy stand is avail­able, so if you bring your own camera, you may make copy ne­gatives from your favorite photo­graphs in the collection. You can then cut costs by making your own custom prints.
    Like the HCHS, the Austin His­tory Center collection has a strong local emphasis, but because Austin is the state capital, the city and its historic events are of interest to Texans beyond the Austin city limits. Sharmyn Lumsden, Curator of the Austin History Center, was very helpful in making some of these events known to me through photographs like those of "Laying brick on Congress Avenue" and "House going over dam."
Not all of the photographs in the collection, however, depict early Austin. Seeing the contemporary photograph as "very much an es­sential component in the historical photography collection,” the AHC created a juried photography ex­hibit, Austin Seen, displayed at the Center from April to June this year. The call for entries was sent out inviting "high quality work… that shows a recognizability of people, places, and events or an essence of life in this [Austin] area." Because anyone could sub­mit photographs, the points of view were excitingly varied. A wonderful exhibit of 114 photo­graphs was created which includes portraits, photographs of the build­ings, springs, and homes of Aus­tin, a "Wedding at Diny's — 1983." and much more. All of the photographs chosen for exhibit have now become part of the per­manent Photography Collection of the AHC and. the curators hope, "will give the same interest, ap­preciation, and delight to subse­quent viewers" as the Collection provides today.
    An exciting part of researching this article was my introduc­tion to the Houston Metropolitan Research Center, a part of our own public library. The HMRC was established in 1974 as an urban research center to house documentation of Houston and Harris County. Now, over 1,500,000 images are stored in its photography collection. There is an altitude al the HMRC that en­courages looking, learning, and the asking of questions.
My tour of the facilities began in the office of Tom Kreneck, Assistant Archivist, whose enthu­siasm is both delightful and con­tagious. Within five minutes I found myself looking at a group of portraits from the sixties, while discussing the importance of grouping, preserving, and viewing photographs as records.
    Although the primary local pho­tographers and newspapers repre­sented date from the 20th century, additional images date back to the mid-!9th century. The 20th cen­tury is represented by the works of Frank Schlueter and Joseph Litterst and by photographs and negatives from The Houston Post since the 1950s. The Houston Chronicle since the 1960s, and the now-defunct Houston Press from 1904 to the 1960s.
    The HMRC is actively involved in locating materials that document Houston and Harris County, and it will take anything given, including camera equipment. The policy of accepting "anything given" has helped to create an interesting collection, which archivally stores entire groups of family photo­graphs. If a family donates Us photographs, each family member could possess a copy of the group for the price of the prints, while the originals would be stored safe­ly and always available for view­ing. This is a fantastic idea, especially when you think of all the family photographs that have been destroyed by improper care or spread throughout the country in the hands of different relatives. All of the cataloged photographs in the Houston Metropolitan Re­search Center are listed in the card catalog with a brief descrip­tion and with cross-references by photographer's name, subject, and date. In addition to the card catalog, an exceptional finding aid has been created, which consists of photocopies of actual photo­graphs in the collection.     This find­ing aid is the best solution I have found to the problem of determin­ing what you really want to see in a closed-stack collection. The photocopied images are particu­larly helpful to visually oriented people, such as photographers, and they also prevent unnecessary handling of fragile photographic materials. The cataloged photo­graphs in the Houston Metropol­itan Research Center arc available Monday through Saturday, from 9am to 6pm, with no appointments necessary. Copy prints are avail­able and inexpensive; RC prints made by a local photographic lab cost about $5 each.     
    Even if money is no object, this is a terrific way to begin a collection of interesting and exciting photographs from the Houston area.

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The Curator

by Roy Flukinger, curator
 
   The Photography Collection of the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Ccnter of the Universi­ty of Texas. Austin, was estab­lished in 1963 with the purchase of the Gcrnshcim Collection, at that time the largest collection of photo-historical material in in­dividual hands. From that superb beginning the Collection has grown to over a hundred limes its original size. At present it contains four and a half million prints and negatives, a research library of nearly 20.000 volumes, an equipment archive of 2.500 items, and thousands of manu­scripts, artifacts and related study materials.     Presently the collection attracts some 1,500 researchers (and twice as many visitors) a year. We provide research materials for scholars, illustrations to hun­dreds of publications, art objects to a number of major exhibi­tions, and assistance and advice to many institutions, public organizations and individuals. The Collection is. above all clsch a resource center for the foster­ing of ideas and the dissemina­tion of information in all aspects of the human experience in which photography has played a role.     A photographic conservator has been hired and a new con­servation laboratory has been established for the treatment of our holdings. Staff members in the Collection now spend a ma­jor portion of their time with basic preservation and rehousing of the images and other items in ihe archive, as welt as instruc­ting patrons in proper handling techniques. In addition, an auto­mated inventory and cataloging system for the photographs has been designed and implemented.     To broaden our understanding of this medium and add to the permanent artistic holdings of the University, the Collection con­tinues to acquire major works by the past masters and present prac­titioners of the photographic an.     The Photography Collection welcomes and encourages patrons from a variety of backgrounds and academic disciplines. Photography has always been studied in such traditional areas as fine arts and communications, recently, however, it has been very en­couraging for us to witness faculty and students from a number of additional academic divisions - including history, American studies, anthropology, sociology, architecture, eco­nomics and the physical sciences - who are constantly bringing their own perspectives to this field. The influx of such diverse humanistic approaches will con­tinue to provide us with a redefi­nition and clarification of our perceptual and conceptual atti­tudes toward this important medium.


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Stock
by Rebecca Parker

    Perhaps no one else in the world would notice that the man in the background of the picture, the one barely visible there behind the forklift, should be wearing a hard-hat. No one except the client -and that's the one who matters. So the photograph, the one that took five hours, four assistants and ten rolls of film to obtain, will never grace the annual report as origi­nally intended.
    But the photograph’s useful life doesn't necessarily end with this rejection. It may enter one of the commercial collections of photo­graphs available for lease or sale. Such collections are called "stock photography- or "available im­ages", the difference usually being a matter of attitude or marketing.
There are various users of stock photography, including advertising agencies, designers, book pub­lishers, magazines, trade publica­tions, and businesses. They use the photographs in various ways, for instance, in ads, brochures, annual reports, slideshows, calen­dars, and textbooks.
To track down just the right image, one might start with a generalized stock photography supplier. There arc eleven in the Houston phonebook, four of them out of town. The local stock sup­pliers range in quality from "Well, it's a photograph, isn't it?" to quite good.
    The Stockhouse provides a good example of how Houston stock suppliers operate. The Stockhouse brokers the work of nearly 100 photographers, each of whom re­ceives 50 percent of the fees their photographs generate. On hand are over 80,000 slides, carefully catalogued by subject. For a research fee of $35 (credited toward the rental rate if a slide is selected), one may peruse their files. If the sought-after photograph is found, a rental fee ranging from $125 to $2,000 is negotiated, depending upon both the image and the intended use. No purchases are allowed. If color separations are required, the original transparency is let out. Otherwise, the Stockhouse will provide reproduction dupes.
    There are also single-photog­rapher stockhouses. The photog­raphers themselves support these businesses and keep all The re­ceipts. They are likely to charge more than the generalized stock-houses for the use of a photo­graph, with fees ranging from about $250 up to several thousand dollars.
If the perfect image cannot be obtained through the commercial or single-photographer stock­houses, one may poll commercial photographers. Many photogra­phers, known as assignment artists, are also willing to open their files or even their computer terminals. Again, the research fee is standard and there are no set use fees. The varying complexity and uniqueness of such photographers' assignments create rates that may fall anywhere between reasonable and the moon.
    The specialist photographers in town may provide the quickest access to the desired photograph, or serve as a last resort. Harper Leiper sells aerial photographs. Their 10,000 in-stock aerials arc constantly updated and fetch $45 each for the first copy, much less for multiples of the same view. For photographs of Houston real estate, one might try any of the commercial photographers who work exclusively with skylines and architectural portraits.
    Historical insights of Houston are the forte of Bob Bailey Studios in The Heights. This shop began doing newsreels and stills for theater chains over 60 years ago. They have over 500.000 unique vintage photographs, many of old-time celebrities. These can he had for S20 for 8x10 prints and 3100 for 16x20 prints.
    The need for stock photography in Houston is shown by the large number of sources. Stock photog­raphy makes possible the use of an unusual image which would cost too much if shot by a hired photographer. But it should he noted that one's first reason for shopping stock suppliers — low cost - is not always justified.  
 

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Commercial

by Paul Hester
    Day-to-day moments of American life in the 1930s have become familiar to us through the popular distribution of photographs by Farm Security Administration photographers such as Russell Lee, Dorothea Lange, Marion Post Wolcott, and Walter Evans. In the rush of photography's ac­ceptance into the art scene, the canonization of these photogra­phers has overlooked those steady practioners of the medium who continue to provide this same ex­istential evidence. The marvel of historical collections in local and national archives owes a great deal to these commercial workers.     If you've noticed the walls of Souper Salad Restaurant, you've seen the work of one such photog­rapher. Bob Bailey learned his craft from Cecil Thompson (whose negatives are in the San Jacinto Museum of History), then went on his own in 1929. With over half a million negatives, it is an incom­parable resource of this phase of Houston's past. One significant aspect is 3,100 8x10 negatives that have been catalogued as ". . . when Holly­wood came to Houston!". When movie stars like Mae West, Judy Garland, and Joan Crawford were in town to promote their movies. Bob Bailey and his brother Marvin were on hand to do promotional stills for press releases. Movie theaters produced elaborate altera­tions to their facades for special movies like Gone With the Wind, and the Bailey brothers recorded these efforts. Thirty-eight different theaters are documented from the 1930s to the 1950s, inside and out. day and night. Many were for in­surance purposes; others record opening nights, complete with crowds drawn by huge spotlights.     Another major subject was the automobile, and hundreds of nega­tives show the new Fords and Chevrolets being promoted and paraded. Department stores like Foley's and Sakowitz are repre­sented by fashion shows, window displays, and construction of new buildings. Bob Bailey began making movies of the Rice University football games in 1934 and did other work that appeared in Pathe newsreels such as the Texas City fire. Bob's brother Marvin took over responsibility for still pic­tures, and Marvin's son Ken now runs the video division. Amy Terry has taken on the task of organising, identifying, and per­forming all the other necessities to make these treasures accessible. If you call for an appointment she'll set you up on the light table and you can view the actual 8x10 negatives.     At the end of World War II, returning veterans drastically altered the labor force which had taken shape during the intense military productions. Quite a few veterans had acquired photographic skills in the service, and conse­quently several new studios opened in Houston.     Harper Leiper was one of those returning veterans and since 1945 his studio on West Dallas has amassed an unequaled collection of aerial photographs. All of Har­ris County is indexed by street names, and 11x14 prints are in stock of every negative It's an overwhelming mass of information and quite fascinating to trace the changes that have occurred.


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A Space Portfolio
    A quarter century of U.S. space exploration has gen­eraled a massive collection of pho­tographs. Among many repetitious and poor quality images are found a few extraordinary gems. Three young men - Dennis Ivy, Paul Judice. and Owen Wilson — who founded 801 Editions, are current­ly working on a project to com­bine the best images from the NASA collection with the recol­lections of nearly three dozen peo­ple crucial to the space program, to provide what promises to he the most comprehensive and human­ized portrait ever made of the years in space.
    What they have planned is two oversized portfolios, together con­taining 24 matted dye-transfer prints and four platinum prints (each image is 10 1/2 inches square) in oversized boxes, each 18 by 22 inches. Each image will be accompanied by a brief recol­lection by a former astronaut, administrator, or NASA tech­nician. These will be typeset by hand and printed on 120 pound paper.
    There will also be a third com­ponent to the project, a bound book of black-and-white platinum prints and longer, more analytical essays. Former NASA Deputy Ad­ministrator Dr. Robert Seamans, for example, is writing about the Washington politics at the in­auguration of the space program in the 1950s.
    All three parts — the two port­folio boxes and the book - will be bound in leather and embossed in gold. They hope to have the project ready to unveil by early 1985, when the Museum of Fine Arts has scheduled an exhibition of the work.
    Although the three arc not ready to go public with all the details of their project - there are still some negotiations going on — they did agree to tell Image the background of what they're calling the NASA portfolio. We joined Ivy, Judice and Wilson one even­ing at 801 Editions, their labor­atory and headquarters contained in a wood frame house.
    Like most huge projects, this one had an inspired beginning. It was the summer of 1982, and the three had been working on Peter Brown's image and text proj­ect,  Seasons of Light. That port­folio was their first major project and they were wondering what they would do next.
    "I came in one evening to print," recalls Dennis Ivy. "and when I arrived Owen and Paul were running around the house, screaming, because they had had this great idea, I asked 'What's going on?' And they said, 'NASA’And I said. Of course.’"
    "We started with the astronauts," says Wilsun. "I had a friend who knew one astronaut. He phoned up Jack Lousma (of the Skylab and shuttle missions) and set up an appointment for us. We wanted to get a reaction from him, to see what he thought of the project from an astronaut's viewpoint. Since he liked it, we thought we wouldn't have any problem. We tried calling a couple of astronauts here in town, who turned us down flat. You can't just call somebody and say 'We have this great idea' because they've heard one million and one ideas, including the idea of astronaut pencils."
"We divided up the tasks of the project," Wilson says. "I took most of the responsibility for get­ting the text together. I started doing research to find out who could say what about what and generated a list of astronauts on the basis of that and started ap­proaching them methodically, I went to visit each one, because there's no other way to do it. You can't do it by mail or phone. I took Peter Brown's project to show them what we were trying to do,"
"We developed a more and more impressive list. Now it's 28 peo­ple. Once you've got a list like that, you can get almost anyone to help you".
Sounds easy in retrospect, but Wilson traveled all over the coun­try in early 1983, trying to get a core group of astronauts interested in the project. He became a master of delicacy and politics.
    NASA could not prohibit the project, they say, because the photographs fall in the public domain. Officially they belong to the United Slates and can be used for anything but an endorsement. Ac­cess to the original transparencies, however, is tightly controlled.
    "NASA ended up being much more cooperative than I ever would have expected." says Judice.
    "One of the big pluses we had was this list of people," says Wilson. "We had two former ad­ministrators and the director of manned space flight and the direc­tor of unmanned space flight."
    The project itself lent itself to cooperation," says Ivy. "It's good for the space program. It brings the public closer to the space pro­gram, which is something they have to do to get funding. And there's the museum show."
    Judice adds, "Exotic media helped a whole lot, because many of the people who work in the photography lab or in the public affairs office came up through the Technicolor photo labs and made all these gorgeous films during the '30s and '40s, or were in the net­work news. When they see some­thing like dye transfer and plat­inum, it really excites them. They have a certain amount of respect for that."
    "Plus the idea of getting the astronauts to talk about things that are not often talked about," says Wilson. "Buzz Aldrin, for exam­ple, a few minutes after they landed on the moon, took commu­nion. I think, although I won't know until I’ve actually seen it, that his text is going to revolve around that incident. Another one would be Stuart Roosa [Apollo 14] who's writing about the fatal fire in the Apollo program. Not in any kind of sensational way. But a lot of the stories haven't been told, simply because there is no outlet for them. And when you put that kind of information together with the pictures and get it from a whole sweep of astronauts from the very first all the way through to the current space shuttle, you build up a picture that no one's got."
     None of the contributors are writers per se, says Wilson, so most of the stories and essays need polishing. Most are trained to write technical reports. Not only must Wilson cajole some 35 contributors to meet their dead­lines, but he must also work with them to make the wording more vivid.
"Owen certainly had his work cut out," says Ivy. "These guys were trained not to be emotional. On space flights they were so busy taking care of being in space, that they really didn't have much time to have personal feel­ings about what they were doing,"
    Some of the texts have surprised them, however. They mention the eloquence of the pad safety leader, a German who was reluctant to cooperate because he said he couldn't write English well enough. He was the last man the astronauts saw on Earth because he closed the bolts on the hatch. He wrote a piece about Alan Shepard's first flight from the view of the safety crew, and it was beautiful, Wilson says.
    What makes this project special, they say, is that this may be the first and last time an undertaking of this type is possible.
    Some of these people are getting old," says Wilson. "We figured, while we were at it, we'd do the job as well as we conceiv­ably could. And that meant, in addition to astronaut photographs and texts, we'd carry viewpoints on sweeping events."
    As of the first of April, about $120,000 had gone into the proj­ect. They expect to spend a third of a million dollars before the project is finished. Although they don’t know exactly how much each portfolio will sell for, they expect their costs to be about $4,000 each.
    Wind River Press of Austin, run by David Holman, will do the printing of the text and the book production. Dermont-Duval, of Paris, is making the boxes and book covers. They will use calf skin — a goat skin is simply too small for the boxes - with gold leaf embossing. "One of the won­derful things is we're running into a lot of craftsmen." says Judice. "Not only are the writing and im­agery going to be beautiful, but the format and the presentation will be too."
     They also had some top-flight help in selecting the final few dozen photographs. Locally they asked Anne Tucker, curator of photography at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and photog­rapher George Krause to help with the selection. They also flew in Roy Flukinger from the University of Texas and James Dean, who is the curator at the Smithsonian and used to run NASA's art program. The four of them received a pre­view set of slides to examine and, in February 1933, spent a day at the Rice Media Center reviewing the photographs.
    "We had selected about 300 photographs from NASA's ar­chives and had had type C prints made that they could look at," says Judice. These were selected after poring through catalogs and files.
    "[The committee] picked, first of all, aesthetically pleasing im­ages, dynamic images," he con­tinues. "And they had to tie together in some sort of narrative sense. And if they had some sort of historical significance, that was neat too. They put together 22 images and had about 10 or 15 alternate images that we could pull from as we needed or to use as supplementary images in the show. It was interesting because you had people like Anne and Roy who have this curatorial back­ground and would look at it as a (historical) body of work like Mat­thew Brady's or Atget's. I think when people look back at the im­agery from the 20th century, they'll look at space pictures. That's really a pivotal point in civilization, George Krause was interested in images, what really jumped out at him. And Dean could do all that, plus he had a strong historical foundation to draw from. He questioned them a lot," Judice says.
    "It's surprising, out of however many images that have been taken, how few there are that can really be considered to go in something like this," says Ivy. 'The reason (astronauts] even had a camera, for the most part, was for tech­nical research. It turned out it was good for public relations, to fi­nance the space program."
    Indeed, so unnecessary were cameras once considered that, on Apollo II, there very nearly was no TV camera because of weight considerations. Flight engineers considered the camera among the most expendable items; only an administrative decision kept the camera onboard.
    "A lot of the astronauts didn't like the idea of taking pictures," says Judice. "It's interesting to look through the reels, because on one mission the guy is just a hard­core scientist and he takes only the pictures he's supposed to take. And on another mission, maybe the guy is a bit of a poet and lakes a picture here and there. I think, as far as NASA is con­cerned, every picture is to docu­ment some kind of scientific experiment. One of the interesting things about the imagery is that the people weren't seeing the pic­tures. They had the camera fast­ened lo their chest pack and it had no view finder."
The Hassclblads used on the space missions had to be modified to work in a weightless environment, and special thin film was designed so it would not have to be frequently changed.
    "You can see [in the photos] from Apollo 11 to Apollo 17 on the moon, there's no atmosphere, so the light has a slightly different color to it." says Judice. "They were fiddling around with differ­ent film emulsions to get the color balance right. They didn't quite get it right until Apollo 17. So the last roll had good color balance, but the early ones were off."
    Up to this point, continues Ju­dice, he, Ivy and Wilson hadn't even considered using NASA's originals from which to make their prints.
    "I called and asked to talk to whomever could make the deci­sion," recalls Judice. "There was a fellow who was in charge of pub­lic affairs. I went to see him and we chatted for a bit. And he said, let's go over to the photo building. I was a little annoyed because I had been hoping they would all leave so I could talk to whomever else I was supposed to. So he asked me to sit down and he in­troduced me and as he did, every­body in the room pulled out a pad of paper and put a pen to it and looked at me. At that point I real­ized they had taken the project seriously.""
    NASA okayed their request to use the originals, but Ivy and Judice had a sudden tremor of nervousness: They didn't even want to touch the transparencies, let alone bring them back to Hous­ton to their lab. The responsibility terrified them. They ended up paying for a technician's time to handle the film, including getting it out of the freezer and putting it in the negative carrier and en-larger for them. They copied it at NASA.
    The most valuable film is kept in a freezer at about 0 degrees, explains Judice. When needed, it's taken out and left 24 hours in the 50 degree cool room, then brought out for a few more hours to come to room temperature.
    "A lot of these cans hadn't been opened in 20 years," says Ivy.
    "They had some surprises," says Judice. "Some of the film was damaged or cracked from age. I think the vault is fairly new. Recently, they began to realize how valuable some of these things were. But some of the old images are in incredibly good shape, really bright and the colors are saturated."
    Only the in-flight images are at Johnson Space Center, says Judice. Everything taken at laun­ches is at Cape Canaveral. Files are also kept in Washington, D.C., and California. There is no catalog system to speak of, he says. Hundreds of thousands of pictures were taken for things like map making. "The seemingly hap­hazard arrangement has its begin­nings in the Cold War. It's plain we were in this race, trying to beat the Russians to the moon. And nobody could be concerned about how they were going to file the images." says Judice.
The first showing of the NASA portfolio will be at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, tentatively scheduled for early 1985. Later that year the work may appear in a show at the Bibliotheque Nationale, in Paris.

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San Antonio

By Sharon Stewart

San Antonio is the home of the Alamo, where in 1836, 183 people fought to the death for Texas independence against 5,000 of Santa Ana's Mexican forces. Forty-six days later, Texas became a nation and remained one for nearly a decade. In 1968. 122 years after the battle of the Ala­mo, the same city hosted the world in a celebration of creative unity, the HemisFair. Such are the influences and paradoxes of this proud, embracing bicultural city that is also Ihe tenth most pop­ulous city in ihe United States.

There is something quite com­pelling developing on a beautiful estate at 6000 N, New Braunfels, home of the McNay Art Institute and [he San Antonio Art Institute (SAAI). For years a community art facility, SAAI is a school in the state of becoming: becoming the first independent college of art in the Southwest. It will be an institution dedicated to change, a state that will be perpetuated by the plans of Director George Parino, the SAAI Trustees, and architect Charles Moore. When Parrino surveyed art school publics as to the ideal art curric­ulum, two seemingly divergent replies were consistently given: teach the basics and teach the language of emerging technologies and concepts.

Photography is central to the scheme at the SAAI. with facilities planned for filmmaking, sound generation, video, computer graphics, and still image produc­tion. But photography won't be holed away with its own mysteri­ous discipline of chemicals and equipment. Believing the artists to be thinking, philosophical crea­tures, Parrino and Dean Howard Smagula are planning a program of coursework based on the con­cept of process. All media will be taught the first two years to give students the expressive language for innovation and conceptual­ization through the process of planning, making, evaluating, and presenting during their last two years of study. There will also be the injection of reality with two semesters of professional practice. The program will begin in the fall of 1986 if construction of the $8 million facility and recruitment of faculty and students dovetail.

SAAI has exhibited photographs in its present gallery. This spring Constructions/Photographs fea­tured the work of Texas photog­raphers Alain Clement, Manual, Steve Dennie, Nic Nicosia, and Neil Maurer. Both photographs and constructions used in the photographs were shown to give an indication of the artists' work­ing methods. Neil Maurer is head of the photo program at the Uni­versity of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). The core of photographic courses he teaches is augmented by method specialists and photo-historians brought in to instruct the BFA and MFA students. The campus, far out 1-10 West, has a gallery for exhibiting student work and outside work such as The re­cent exhibition of a local photo collector's holdings.

There are two other galleries in town exhibiting photography. Anne Alexander, owner of the Charleston Gallery at 308 N, Presa on the Riverwalk has consistently shown photographs in her six years of operation and is always interested in seeing new work. UTSA graduate Kathy Vargas is currently sharing an exhibition with members of an Italian photo cooperative. At Objects Gallery, 4010 Broadway across from the Witte, Caroline Lee shows artists who push the edge of their craft, be it photography, ceramics, fabrics, or papermaking. So it was with the photographs I viewed ranging from painted and con­structed images to palladium, col­or, and black and white prints by Texas photographers.

San Antonio photographers have shown their work at the Bank of San Antonio at One Romano Plaza. A bank show you say. Many who have participated in and certainly those who organize the shows view the bank as an alternative space for exhibiting work without the pressure of sales. Margaret Larcade has placed the work of respected San Antonio artists of all disciplines since the initiation of the San Antonio Artist Series in 1979.

In light of this issue's coverage of photographic collections it is significant to mention the four historical archives which canonize centuries of Texas living.

One of these is housed at the Institute of Texan Cultures on the grounds of the HemisFair. 801 South Bowie. First the Texas Pa­vilion during the Fair, it became the Institute by legislative mandate which placed it in the hands of the University of Texas System, deem­ing it a research facility and com­munications center for the study of Texas history, folklore, and culture.

The strength of the Institute's collection begins with images taken during 1924-1939 by San Antonio Light news photographers. This collection was donated by The Hearst Foundation and from it the Institute produced a 1.600-imagc presentation highlighting life in San Antonio in The 1920s and 1930s for visitors to view. Augmenting the collection are copy negatives from private family and town museum collections across the state.

The Institute is currently exhib­iting 42 photographs depicting the life of the ranch cowboy during the last decades of the Texas cattle kingdom from the Rector Archives of the Humanities Research Center of The University of Texas Austin, Ray Rector made these images in the early 1900s. The panoramic photographs of long-time San Antonio and world photographer, E. O. Goldbeck will be exhibited in 1985 at the Institute. Staff member John L. Davis authored San Antonio: An Historical Por­trait, a short pictorial history and popular narrative published during the HemisFair. Davis drew from the Light Collection and other photo archives including the Texas Research Library that is main­tained by The Daughters of the Republic of Texas.

A component of the Alamo compound, the library houses books, documents, maps, period­icals and photographs pertaining to Texas history, particularly the era of the Texas Republic. Many fam­ilies and individual collectors have donated photographs to the libra­ry, most notably early San Anton­io architect M. J. Diehlman, Sr., and Edward Grandjean, a local camera store employee who. it is rumored, found a treasure of photos in a trash bin.

San Antonio and regional Texas life arc also documented in the photo archives of the San Antonio Conservation Society, 107 King William. Photographs of San An­tonio landmarks. Conservation Society properties, and documen­tation of current renovations are also included. The Society is quite proud of its collection of 300 glass plates Taken by early 20th century photographer Ernst Raba thai were donated by the Express News Cor­poration, the publisher of San An­tonio's other newspaper.

It was lantern slides from the San Antonio Museum Associa­tion's (SAMA) photo collection that Witte Museum Senior Curator Cecelia Steinfeldt used to illustrate another historical survey, San Antonio Was. This 30.000-image collection is a component of a larger collection of 500,000 items including paintings, sculpture, and scientific and historical artifacts, SAMA owns and jointly shares this collection with the Museum of Transportation, Witte Museum, and San Antonio Museum of Art.

Until three years ago — when the San Antonio Museum of Art opened in the magnificently refur­bished Lone Star Brewery at 200 West Jones — the Witte was the city's fine arts museum. Its focus is now history and natural history allowing the new museum the fine and decorative arts berth. With new director John Mahee only months at his job and a national search for a curator of contem­porary art underway, photographic planning and activity is uncertain

save the September 9 opening of Mexico: The Revolutionary Era. This exhibition of landscape and war photos of Hugo Brehme and Augustin Casasola is drawn from the permanent collection as was a recent Walker Evans show. Sources for exhibitions arc a balanced drawing from the collec­tion. Traveling shows and work of local photographers. The 1983 Contemporary Work Series in­cluded the work of local photog­raphers Jessie Mary Garza, Steve Sellars, and Neil Maurer. In the past, these exhibitions were hung in the Photography Gallery of the museum, but this spring other media were placed in the space making it an all purpose gallery.

 


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Fred Lonidier
by Paula Goldman 
(Paula Goldman was responsible for bringing Fred Lonidier's exhi­bition I Like Everything Nothing But Union to the Houston Center for Photographv from March 30 through Mav 6.)
    Documentary photography designates a wide variety of work showing or analyzing events and social conditions. A truly doc­umentary work should be a com­prehensive view of a subject, one that presents the dynamics and reasoning behind a situation in addition to its appearance. Doc­umentary photographers range from observers to committed acti­vists. The observers tend to con­firm the viewer's preconceived notions: the poor arc helpless victims, the rich live in remote, elaborate surroundings. Their photographs offer no new ideas: they generate pity (an unproduc­tive emotion), or cynicism {which is worse, because the viewer re­signs himself to accept the situa­tion as unalterable). At its best, in addition to informing the viewer, a documentary can offer sugges­tions for improvements or show inspiring examples of people al­ready involved in positive societal change. Ideally, a viewer should leave the work with a fresh per­spective on the subject and per­haps some changed preconcep­tions. (He may even contribute time, money or write his Con­gressman.)
    Documentary photography has long been affiliated with photo­journalism and the principle of objective, neutral observation. Photojournalists working for the news media have little time to research their subjects; they are thrown into situations and forced by time constraints to quickly grab a "slice of life". The photos are then edited primarily for emotion­al rather than factual content (depending on the publications editorial leaning), because pulled heartstrings sell papers. The public trusts the camera's intervention in a scene, and hence any "street" photograph taken for journalism \s treated as a document. Yet a "grabbed" photograph can do little to illuminate the true conditions of its subject.
    The aspiration of documentary photography to fine art removes it even further from informational possibilities. Once it is isolated and hung on a gallery wall to be sold. The photograph becomes a commodity, rather than a commu­nication designed to convey infor­mation and spur change. As an object, the photograph relies on formal compositional strengths and emotional impact.
    To create a documentary work that is capable of educating the viewer, the photographer must also be educated. He must have some idea of how things got to be how they arc. A photographer with little or no socio-political background in his subject has little choice but to approach his subject formally or stylistically to achieve graphic impact. An aesthetically effective picture can produce sym­pathetic, even indignant, emotions in the viewer, but without produc­ing understanding of the causes and effects. An emotional reaction that functions primarily as cathar­sis for the viewer is not enough to put him in the subject's place, not enough information is present.
    Fred Lonidier is a documen­tary photographer who has been personally involved with his subject for years. Lonidier deals with organized labor and the po­litical potential of grassroots movements. He considers himself an activist within the labor move­ment Che is also secretary-treasurer of his union local in San Diego) and creates his work for the union audience rather than for the art community. Text is an integral part of Lonidier's work, some­times in the form of captions or often as a parallel, complementary work that expands the meaning of the straightforward photographs.
Lonidier's most rcccnl work, / Like Everything Nothing But Union, was exhibited al The Houston Center for Photography in April. The work was commis­sioned by the San Diego-imperial Counties AFL-CIO Labor Council for union members and is perma­nently installed in the Labor Council hall. To demonstrate the varied composition of the union, Lonidier shows individual workers at their jobs and in informal por­traits. Excerpts from interviews with union members accompany the photographs on printed panels. The excerpts express workers' perspectives on, among other topics, their working conditions political and economic influences on their lives, pride in their jobs and in their union involvement, and union positions on racial and sexual issues.
    This project shows aspects of organized labor not readily appar­ent to the public. The diversity of the union members photographed and quoted dispels the misconcep­tion held among the misinformed that organized labor is a homo­genous mass of like-thinking blue collar males. Lonidier presents workers in unstereotypical roles: a black, female ironworker, a male elementary school teacher, a female college professor, a female horseshoer. Occupations not or­dinarily considered "unionized" are represented, such as sugar workers, recording engineers, and musicians.
The tone of the work is unde­niably positive: the workers' comments are full of constructive criticism and suggestions for improvements.
Lonidier's work not only in­cludes information on the broad scope of union activities, but enters the most important and most exciting realm for documen­taries:   viable suggestions for im­proving the quality of life. Cynical affirmation is useless: documentarians interested in making a social contribution need to present new attitudes and alternatives. Photographers must offer inspiring visions in order to cause any changes. By thoroughly under­standing his subject, a photog­rapher can direct the power of the visual image toward positive social change.

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Women/Documents
    When I look at photographs as an historian, I look at them as cultural artifacts, as expressions of value and interest arising out of - and moving into — specific discourses. Such artifacts have ways of being looked at, thought about, acted upon that presuppose some agreement on the nature and/or function(s) of photographs among a particular group of viewers. These discourses are always bound by social and cultural determinants like race, class, nationality, education, oc­cupation, and gender. The show I've recently curated for The Houston Center for Photography, NewWomen: New Documents, is about a distinctive difference I see in the way some women photogra­phers today are structuring their image-making within the larger art/academia/museum world of art discourse.
    Though this larger world gener­ally prizes the uniqueness, the aura, if you will, of the fine print - the solitary print as an object of meditation and desire, a world unto itself - these women's work ignores thesedonnéesof art photographic practice in favor of an approach that instead stresses the continuity between their art-making and the worlds that they/ their viewers inhabit. Rather than make their art from materials far removed from everyday life, these photographers have in fact made the persona] political, have in­vested the personal with the high seriousness usually reserved for less mundane subject matter, in­stead of a solipsistic retreat from engagement with their daily lives, or an equally hubristic attempt to move Their inquiries beyond "mere" female subject matter, they attempt to describe and know the world closest to them - that of family, of social relationships, where lies the delicate, miscible line between the Self and Other.
    That these four women photog­raphers - Judith Crawley, Connie Hatch, Cynthia Gano Lewis, and Sandra Semchuk - all deal with family and relationships in their work, and that they do so in the particular ways that they do, strikes me as hardly fortuitous. In fact, the more that we learn about women's emotional development, the more I think we will be able to see The pure insistent note in many women artists' work in youth to mid-life, telling us, as I feel this work does, how primary relationships are to women.1
    Carol Gilligan's important work of the past decade, made broadly available two years ago in In A Different Voice — Psycholog­ical Theory and Women's Develop­ment, 2 posits a view of women's development that runs counter to that of Theorists from Freud through Erikson and Kohlberg, all of whom argued for women's emotional immaturity in adult­hood, based on our lack of ab­solutist, idealist, rationalist ways of dealing with posed moral di­lemmas. For them, women re­mained so many Noras, forever chained inside their ethical doll-houses.
Gilligan's research proposes an alternate way of seeing women's moral development: in our relativist, commonsensical, deeply contextualized approach to moral problem-solving, she argues, there lies an equally valid, ethically valid, ethically very humane, and mature form of behavior. Women, she believes, see things differently from men because our moral tra­jectory from youth to maturity is so different from men’s.
                    … the prevalence of violence in men's fantasies, denoting a world where danger is every­where seen, signifies a problem in making connection, causing relationships to erupt and turn­ing separation into a dangerous isolation . . [it indicates] a problem with connection [for men] that leads relationships to become dangerous and safety to appear in separation. [Thus] rule-bound competition achieve­ment situations, which for women threaten the web of connection, for men provide a mode of connection that establishes clear boundaries and limits aggression, and thus appears comparatively safe.
    There certainly isn't space here to go into Professor Gilligan's argument, but if we accept even provisionally her thesis, then I think certain things that all of us as artists, teachers, and parents observe about photographs, stu­dents, and children become a bit more explicable, I'm not arguing for a gender imperative here, but I do believe that Gilligan's work on the different trajectories of moral development in men and women accounts to a great extent for the difference we see in student work and in much of the women's pho­tographs now emerging.
    Women students and mature photographers photograph people more than men do. They photo­graph people intimately - not as fleeting grab shots on a busy city street, but as people with whom they seek connection. On the other hand, more of my male photo stu­dents tend to photograph abstract­ly: they photograph their ideas, they photograph objects. They take real pleasure in the isolating and instrumental phases of photog­raphy — the sexy equipment — while my female students tend to be initially a bit intimidated by technique and equipment. On the other hand, women students' pho­tographs, in my experience, more frequently demand an emotional response, whereas many of my most adept and confident male students create work whose bril­liant surfaces arc all but impossi­ble to penetrate except formally. (I bring this up because it was in observing student work that it first occurred to me to try applying Gilligan's theory to the distinct differences I was already perceiv­ing, as a way of at least partially explaining them.)
In the work of the four women photographers who contributed to New Women: New Documents, the concern for relationship ex­tends beyond the subject matter each woman chooses to her meth­od of presentation itself. Each of the photographers here works in series, but these are series that weave the "web of connection" that Gilligan speaks of rather than offering us a number of individ­ually startling images linked only by subject matter or formal treat­ment. These series consist of images that may indeed sacrifice individual clout for a more seam­less positioning inside the body as a whole. Like so many siblings, their images are not meant to be prized out of their contexts as statement of isolated sensibility or vision; rather, they form their meaning as a family does, by be­ing seen as an entirety. Many of their images appear more as bridges to an overall meaning than as repositories of isolated signif­icance. In the ordering, too, of the series, the contextualizing. non-hierarchial way of handling ex­perience that Gilligan ascribes  to women is very evident: Craw­ley's grids, Hatch's mirrorings, Semchuk's seamless strips and stacks suggest The wide variety of ways in which their images can be read,
    It takes a certain amount of re­ordering in one's thinking to ap­preciate the values of this quiet work alongside the flashier claims of much photography encountered in the discourse field of art/academia/museums. But as I men­tioned before, my chief attraction to photography is to its value as a cultural artifact - as something that tells us about the kinds of values, beliefs, traditions that have been lived. For me, these photo­graphs tell me about things that have not been much discussed visually, either within the dis­course of art or within a broader cultural framework: what Tillic Olscn termed "how life is, for most of humanity."
    Most pointedly. I look at this work's scrupulous attempts at uncovering and healing feelings about rape, sexual objecthood, and motherhood, and I sec in it the shaping of experience that needs to be seen and to be spoken. Adrienne Rich put it most eloquently: Whatever is unnamed, undepicted in images, whatever is omitted from biography, cen­sored in collections of letters, whatever is misnamed as some­thing else, made difficult to come by, whatever is buried in the memory by the collapses of meaning under an inadequate or lying language, this will become not merely unspoken, but unspeakable.  My hope is that more women photographers will attend more closely to the voices within them that have been so long unheard or stilled and produce an effulgence of work that expands the discourse of art photography into areas be­yond its present formalist con­cerns. Perhaps then, like Gilligan, we can expect to find art engaging broad human concerns:
    . . . In the different voice of women lies the truth of an ethic of care, the tie between rela­tionship and responsibility, and the origins of aggression in the failure of connection. The fail­ure to see the different reality of women's lives and to hear the differences in their voices stems in pan from the assump­tions that there is a single mode of social experience and interpretation. By positing in­stead two different modes, we arrive at a more complex ren­dition of human experience . . ; /through which/ we can begin to envision a change understan­ding of human development and a more generative view of human life4
 
Footnotes:
1.        This isn't to say that many women wont successfully mask these issues, resolve them out­side their art, or opt to sup­press them if favor of more mtde-orienied and saleable work. But as more is under­stood and made known about women's very different develop­ment, we may also expect to find mar? women choosing to explore material close to home without apology, as has al­ready happened in the past fif­teen years in women's writing and painting.
2Gilligan, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982.
3 Rich, It Is the Lesbian In Us . . ." On Lies, Secrets, and Silence: Selected Prose, 1966­1978 (New York; W. W. Nor­ton, 1979), p. 199.
4 Gilligan. pp. I73-I74.U

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Manual
 (The collaboration of Suzanne Bloom and Ed Hill under the pseudonym of MANUAL began ten years ago this spring. The follow­ing is taken from a talk MANUAL gave recently at Betty Moody Gallery in conjunction with their exhibition there titled Videology. They acquired their first video equipment in June, 1974. The pre­sent project was completed over a period of 16 months.)
In general, the work in the Vid­eology project is about received images both in the literal sense of images received on a home televi­sion screen and, more importantly, in the same way that Gustav Flau­bert collected received ideas for his famous Dictionary. That is to say, television as a transmission/ reception system communicates through the malleable terms of culturally shared and communally understood images.
More specifically. Videology is about the problems of representa­tion and meaning, about tbe ways in which meaning in television is dependent upon the ambiguity of the individual IMAGE-SIGN. Each image (as in the individual pho­tographs) has meaning potential. Each image holds the possibility of representing or evoking multi­ple meanings by calling up in our imagination other signs (images). Further, when several images (photographs) arc then put toge­ther they may activate this mean­ing potential in particular ways quite specific to an individual viewer.
The programmers of broadcast television intend to direct the viewer's consciousness toward consumption of certain calculated messages. Our intention, however, has not been to construct fixed
messages (as, say, in the manner of the rebus), but to deconstruct and expose the process that is at work in television while leaving the viewer maximum free-play for interpretation. It seems to us the common objects that make up the majority of our photographs are shown as familiar and "made strange" at the same time - at least, we hope that is the case. We want to remove television from the realm of the taken-for-g ranted.
The Videology project attempts to examine our culture as a whole as it is mediated by TV. Not only is our present everyday world mediated by television, so is our past. History, even "private" history, is absorbed into the pre­sent and commodified.
We make no distinctions here between high or popular culture, between profound or trivial, be­tween "good" or "bad." At the level of signs, they are all equal. The derived meanings available from these images are both social­ly and individually constructed. But they come to us thoroughly structured by the medium or video (i.e.. television) - pre-screened as
it were.
The 120 photographs comprising Videology might be better called a "collection" rather Than a "series." Why such a large number? In order to give the semblance of a coherent cultural breadth, it seemed necessary to marshal as many and as heterogeneous a group of images as we thought could be pulled together in a single presentation.
We would like These photo­graphs to be experienced as pho­tographs, not as "stills" from television. They are about photog­raphy insofar as they do what photography generally does: they examine a part of our visible world, they freeze time, and they frame space. The space they iso­late is plainly cultural; it makes no pretense of actually being natural. And yet, television has become "naturalized" (or normalized) in our collective consciousness.
We are not embracing video culture, simply turning our camera and projecting our imaginative understanding towards it.
Videology, strangely enough, owes a great debt to Flaubert's last work of fiction, Bouvard and Pecuchet.

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