Woman series was groundbreaking both for its
subject and for the gender implications it explored.
This was further explored in his book,Embrace
(1971). Hosoe has published books of dancers,
has been an important advocate of artistic photo-
graphy, and has taught internationally. Kikuji
Kawada (b. 1933) was a freelance photographer
in the 1950s and founded the Vivo group with
Hosoe and others. His works relate to indigenous
subjects—the Japanese flag, soldiers, the Hir-
oshima monument—and are compiled in books
(e.g.,The Map, 1965).
Roman Vishniac (1887–1990) is known for his
atmospheric documentation of European Jews in
the immediate pre-WWII era. Josef Sudek (1896–
1976) was Czechoslovakia’s most renowned photo-
grapher and made memorable images of urban
landscapes and lyrical images of banal objects. Jar-
omir Funke (1896–1945), also relentless innovator
and experimenter, and Sudek were founders of the
Czech Photographic Society and are regarded as
masters in that country.
Pioneers and Provocation
Some twentieth-century photographers are famous
forthecontroversytheirworksprovoked.Thiswas
mainly due to the then-disturbing nature of their
subjects. Lisette Model (1906–1983), for instance, is
famous for her quirky portraits of human imperfec-
tion. To New York in 1938 from a background in
art, and encouraged by Alexey Brodovitch, Model
utilized a snapshot aesthetic. Teaching at the New
School for Social Research in New York around
1950, she influenced young photographers. One of
these, Diane Arbus (1923–1971), photographed
unique individuals in bluntly frontal fashion. Arbus
sought out and photographed invalids, twins, pet
owners, transvestites, and eccentrics of all types.
Before committing suicide in 1971, she had been
awarded Guggenheim Fellowships in 1963 and
- Arbus was the first major American photogra-
pher—and the first woman photographer—to be
represented at the Venice Biennale. Ralph Eugene
Meatyard’s (1925–1972) haunting images of di-
lapidated architecture and masked figures of the
late 1950s and 1960s share a brooding, gothic
quality. Les Krims (b. 1942) is recognized for his
bizarre portfolios of the 1970s (e.g.,The Incredible
Case of the Stack O’Wheats Murders) in which he
stages comic scenarios in the style of police photo-
graphs. His work became notorious when, during
an exhibition of his images in Tennessee, the son
of the gallery director was kidnapped until his
pictures were taken down.
The work of Robert Mapplethorpe (1946–1989)
includes images of flowers, of bodybuilders, celebri-
ties, and homosexual and sadomasochistic imagery.
He was a major figure in what would come to be
known as the ‘‘culture wars’’ of the late 1980s and
early 1990s. Conservative politicians, regarding his
work as indecent, called into question the entire sys-
tem of government sponsorship of the arts. This led
to greater restrictions being placed on the National
Endowment for the Arts. Tragically, Mapplethorpe’s
work must also be seen as related to the first wave of
consciousness of the AIDS epidemic since he himself
died of the disease. Andres Serrano also shocked
viewers in 1987 with an image of a crucifix seen
through urine. Joel-Peter Witkin (b. 1939) is known
for his bizarre subjects—amputees, corpses, and fet-
ish images—arranged in macabre tableaux and prin-
ted in techniques reminiscent of early processes.
Sally Mann’s (b. 1951) images of nude children,
mainly members of her own family, provoked con-
troversy apart from their nature as probing char-
acter studies. Jock Sturges’s masterfully printed
images of nude girls, usually shown in beach loca-
tions, were at times confiscated as pornography.Late-Century Pioneers
Lee Friedlander (b. 1934) is known as a pioneering
Social Landscape photographer, but with an inter-
est in photographic vision and in the mechanics of
picture making. His works often include pictures
within pictures. In the 1970s and 1980s, he devoted
himself to images of American historical sites and
landscapes. Kenneth Josephson (b. 1932), too,
explores the nature of the photograph itself and
the presence of the photographer in even more
conceptual ways. Emmet Gowin (b. 1941) photo-
graphed his wife, Edith (Morris), in the familiar
spaces of their native Virginia. His works have a
gentle pathos and are noted for their sense of time.
Duane Michals (b. 1932) is associated with the
expressive use of the artistic photo-sequence in the
late 1960s and 1970s. Often containing an element
of fantasy, they have a narrative, almost filmic qual-
ity. Jerry Uelsmann (b. 1934) is regarded as a pioneer
in multiple printing. Beginning in the 1960s, he pro-
duced fantastic, surreal images that defied logic and,
considering their date, sought to expand conscious-
ness. Uelsmann is also recognized as a teacher of note.
With his roots in performance art, Lucas Samaras
(b. 1936) made a lasting impression with a series of
self-portraits (Autopolaroids, 1971). Shortly after, he
began experimenting with the instant Polaroid SX-70
process, manipulating images while they were still
developing (Photo-Transformations, 1975). And whileHISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY: TWENTIETH-CENTURY PIONEERS