Ambassadors of Progress

by Griffith, Bronwyn A. E.; Curtis, Verna Posever; Poivert, Michel; Robb, Andrew; Meister, Laura Ilise

• ISBN13: 9780932171221
• ISBN10: 0932171222
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-11-01
• Publisher: Terra Museum of Amer Art

Summary

An exhibition held in Paris a century ago demonstrated the key role American women photographers played in the international pictorialist movement. The accomplishment of these professional and amateur photographers clearly demonstrated a mastery of the medium and made a strong impression on those in attendance. Ambassadors of Progress explores this largely unknown event. Each of the 29 artists, including such well-known figures as Gertrude Kaesebier, Amelia van Buren and Zaida Ben-Yusuf, is represented in a selection of approximately 70 breathtaking color plates drawn from the Frances Benjamin Johnston Collection at the Library of Congress and the National Museum of American History. The photographs include landscapes, portraiture, genre scenes, and still-lifes, all of which are evocatively composed and delicately toned using a variety of photographic techniques. The book contains essays by Verna Curtis (Curator of Photography, Library of Congress -- on Frances Benjamin Johnston as photographer and curator), Michel Poivert (President, Societe Francaise de Photographie -- on the French critical reception), Derrick R. Cartwright (Director, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College -- on the relationship of pictorialist photography to contemporary American painting), and Andrew Robb (Senior Photograph Conservator, Library of Congress -- on the conservation processes surrounding these works).

Author Biography

Bronwyn Griffith is Assistant Curator at the Musee d'Art Americain Giverny.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. 6
Acknowledgments	p. 7
Introduction	p. 8
"Dainty and artistic or strong and forceful - just as you wish": American Women Photographers at the Universal Exposition of 1900	p. 12
Frances Benjamin Johnston in 1900: Staking the Sisterhood's Claim in American Photography	p. 24
A Taste of the Avant-Garde: The Reception of American Women Photographers in Paris (1900-1901)	p. 38
Plates	p. 51
What Women Have Done: Pictorial Photographs from the Frances Benjamin Johnston Collection - A Conservator's View	p. 129
Women Photographers in the Frances Benjamin Johnston Collection: Biographies	p. 137
Appendix	p. 188
Selected Bibliography	p. 192
Index	p. 200
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