that often hint at the otherworldly. The Starn twins
(Doug and Mike) tore and reassembled photographs
with tape. Artists such as David Hockney and Gil-
bert & George made large-scale, multi-image col-
lages. Photographs are integral components of the
paintings of Anselm Kiefer and Sigmar Polke where
they often relate to recent German history.
Although the 1960s witnessed a taste for harsh
documentary photographs, some images provoked
scandals in the later part of the century. Les Krims’s
1970 image of a legless man on a pedestal provoked
a viewer to hold the son of the gallery director
hostage until it was removed. An exhibition that
included some of the graphically sexual images of
Robert Mapplethorpe provoked conservative mem-
bers of Congress to call for their censorship and for
a rethinking of government funding for the arts in
general. The homoeroticism of some of the works
was linked to the AIDS epidemic, from which Map-
plethorpe himself later died. Andre Serrano gained
notoriety for an image of a crucifix immersed in
urine (1987). Joel-Peter Witkins’s photographs
have shocked many viewers; his antique-looking
images of bizarre tableaux often include amputees
and severed heads. Jock Sturges was brought to
trial for his images of nude girls; Sally Mann’s
pictures of her own nude children have sparked a
less heated debate.
Feminist concerns and issues of identity were
expressed by photographers working in the latter
decades of the century. Cindy Sherman’s self-por-
traits explore women’s roles while Astrid Klein’s
collages, which use the conventions of advertising
photography and language, challenge assumptions
about gender. Similarly, in the 1990s, photo-artists
such as Lorna Simpson and Carrie Mae Weems
have critiqued cultural stereotypes about race and
about the female body.
Institutionalizing Photography
Museums began establishing their own distinct
photography departments as well, with one of the
earliest departments at the Museum of Modern
Art, in New York (1940). In 1955, the Museum of
Modern Art (MoMA) mounted The Family of
Man, a blockbuster exhibition arranged according
to universal themes of love, work, and birth.
Including 500 works by nearly 70 photographers
shooting in countries throughout the world, it was
the most visited photography exhibition ever; its
catalogue became the best selling photography
book of all time. It was arranged by Edward Stei-
chen, then head of the photography department,
and was meant to reaffirm humane values in the
post-war period.
In the twentieth century, photography became
the subject of serious intellectual inquiry. Figures
such as Walter Benjamin, Roland Barthes, Susan
Sontag, and John Berger have written important
philosophical and cultural examinations of the
medium. Authors and poets have also integrated
photography and its effects into their writing. The
century also saw the advent of pioneering histor-
ians of photography such as Heinrich Schwartz,
Helmut and Alison Gernsheim. Nancy and Beau-
mont Newhall encouraged artistic photography in
their time and established departments of photo-
graphy in museums and universities alike. Beau-
mont Newhall wrote an enduring history of
photography,The History of Photography: From
1839 to the Presentin 1937, based on a landmark
exhibition of the same name at MoMA. Important
curator-writers such as John Szarkowski, also at
MoMA, curated significant shows and shaped opi-
nion about the direction of contemporary photo-
graphy for several decades. Organizations for
amateurs and professionals proliferated in the
twentieth century. Camera clubs, exhibiting socie-
ties, and workshops sprang up in cities around the
world. A broad range of magazines and instruc-
tional books conveyed professional, aesthetic, and
technical information. After World War II, gal-
leries devoted exclusively to photography were
established. The market for photography soared
in the 1970s as historians and museums determined
a canon for its history.
MarkPohlad
Seealso:Adams, Ansel; Bauhaus; Becher, Hilla and
Bernd; Brownie; Callahan, Harry; Capa, Robert;
Cartier-Bresson, Henri; Dada; Digital Photography;
Documentary Photography; Duncan, David Douglas;
Edgerton, Harold; Evans, Walker; Farm Security Ad-
ministration; Fashion Photography; Frank, Robert;
Group f/64; Heartfield, John; Hine, Lewis; Ho ̈ch,
Hannah; Infrared Photography; Institute of Design;
Life Magazine; Lissitzky, El; Magnum Photos; Man
Ray; Mapplethorpe, Robert; Moholy-Nagy, La ́szlo ́;
Montage; Multiple Exposures and Printing; Museum
of Modern Art; Newhall, Beaumont; Photogram;
Photo League; Photo-Secession; Pictorialism; Porter,
Eliot; Portraiture; Renger-Patzsch, Albert; Sander,
August; Sherman, Cindy; Solarization; Steichen,
Edward; Stieglitz, Alfred; Stryker, Roy; Surrealism;
Szarkowski, John; War Photography; Weems, Carrie
Mae; Weston, Edward; White, Clarence; White,
MinorHISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY: TWENTIETH-CENTURY DEVELOPMENTS