Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Seen Together: Acquisitions in Photography

January 26 through May 26, 2024

Seen Together showcases over forty previously unexhibited works acquired by the Morgan’s Department of Photography since its founding in 2012. The pieces selected, and their thematic arrangements, reflect the department’s two highest priorities: first, to build a photography collection that converses with other collections at the Morgan, including drawings, printed books, and literary manuscripts; and second, to draw from widely varied historical contexts and traditions for photographs that collectively tell larger stories about the medium.

One wall of the exhibition features eighteen photographs of prominent figures from many creative disciplines, notably visual art (Yayoi Kusama, Marcel Duchamp, Saul Steinberg), literature (Marianne Moore, Jack Kerouac), performance (Yoko Ono, Harlem Renaissance dancer Edna Guy), and music (Louis Hardin, aka Moondog). Visually inventive photography of artists—transcending “portraiture” in the familiar sense—forms a major ongoing focus for the department. It has grown out of two early initiatives: the 2007 acquisition of seventy-one photographs by Irving Penn and Diane Arbus portraying artists collected by the Morgan and the 2013 launch of the Peter Hujar Collection, which today numbers over 150 works.

Other themes explored in Seen Together include kaleidoscopic and abstract camera imagery, the visual dynamic between (artistic) “landscapes” and (touristic) “views” in the nineteenth century, and the artist’s own body as subject. A unique and engaging group of thirty-one anonymously made snapshots, compiled by the collector Peter J. Cohen, finds the camera being used to document the work lives of everyday people. Two artists are seen in some depth: Irving Penn, with three photographs demonstrating his work for Vogue magazine in fashion, travel, and food; and Eleanor Antin, whose influential series of fifty-one postcards, 100 Boots, was mailed, card by card, to several dozen correspondents forty years ago and given, as a complete set, to the Morgan in 2022.

This exhibition at the Morgan is organized by Joel Smith, Richard L. Menschel Curator and Department Head of Photography, with support from Olivia McCall, Edith Gowin Curatorial Fellow of Photography.

Seen Together: Acquisitions in Photography is supported by the Margaret T. Morris Fund for Americana and the J. W. Kieckhefer Foundation, with assistance from Elaine Goldman, Ron Kass, and Peter J. Cohen.

Joe Rudko, Stage (detail), 2017, 32 x 45 inches, Gelatin silver print collage. Purchased as the gift of Richard and Ronay Menschel in memory of James M. Smith 2022.136. Courtesy of the artist and Von Lintel Gallery, Los Angeles.

Selected Images

Joe Rudko (b. 1990), Stage, 2017, Purchased as the gift of Richard and Ronay Menschel in memory of James M. Smith, 2022.136. © Courtesy of the artist and Von Lintel Gallery, Los Angeles.

Weegee (Arthur Fellig), b. 1899–1968, Distortion, 51st Street and Broadway, 1950s, Gelatin silver print, Gift of Michael Rips, 2019.277. © Weegee (Arthur H. Fellig) / International Center for Photography / Getty Images

Irving Penn, (1917–2009), Miyake Fashion, White and Black, 1990 (negative), 1992 (print), Gelatin silver print, mounted to board, purchased on the Charina Endowment Fund, 2020.23. © The Irving Penn Foundation

Peter Hujar (1934–1987), Group with Eleanor Ward at the Stable Gallery, 1967, Gift of Stephen Koch, 2020.102r. © The Peter Hujar Archive / Artists Rights Society (ARS).

Dancer Edna Guy (1907–1982) in costume as “A Figure from Angkor Wat,” New York, ca. 1931. Photograph by Soichi Sunami (1885–1971), Purchased as the gift of Douglas Troob, 2018.130. Photography by Soichi Sunami

Self 6 (1975), from a series of sewn photographic self-portraits by artist Annegret Soltau (b. 1946), Gelatin silver print with black thread, purchased on the Charina Endowment Fund, 2023.98. © 2024 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

Writer Jack Kerouac (1922–1969) listens to himself on the radio, New York, 1959, Photograph by John Cohen (American, 1932–2019), Purchased as the gift of Nancy and Burton Staniar, 2016.28. © The John Cohen Trust, courtesy of L. Parker Stephenson Photographs

Martine Syms (b. 1988), New Guards, 2014, purchased on the Photography Acquisition Fund, 2014.80. © courtesy the artist and Bridget Donahue, NYC.

Artist Jackson Pollock (1912–1956) paints Autumn Rhythm, Springs, New York, 1950. Photograph by Hans Namuth (1915– 1990). Purchased on the Photography Collectors Committee Fund, 2023.61. © 1991 Hans Namuth Estate.

Ralph Eugene Meatyard (1925–1972), Untitled (self-portrait), undated, Purchased on the Photography Collectors Committee Fund, 2022.175. © The Estate of Ralph Eugene Meatyard, courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco

Carl Van Vechten (1880–1964), Sagrada Família, Barcelona, 1935, purchased as the Gift of Kaspar, 2014.11. © photographed by Carl Van Vechten, ©Van Vechten Trust.

Mary Ellen Bartley, b. 1959, Untitled 48, 2009, from the series Paperbacks, Gift of Michael Koch and Andrew Kohler, 2023.94. ©Mary Ellen Bartley

Robert Macpherson (1814–1872), View over Rome, Taking in the Vatican, from Monte Pincio, 1863 or earlier, Purchased on the Photography Collectors Committee Fund, 2023.55.

Dennis Oppenheim (1938–2011), Reading Position for Second Degree Burn, 1970, Gift of Amy V. Oppenheim, in honor of Dennis Oppenheim, 2023.4. © Dennis Oppenheim Estate.

Railway Porter from “43 'Small Trades' snapshots portraying people in their work situations”, 1920s–1970s, Gift of Peter J. Cohen, 2023.97:9.

Camp Porter, from “43 'Small Trades' snapshots portraying people in their work situations”, 1920s–1970s, Gift of Peter J. Cohen, 2023.97:28.

Eleanor Antin (b. 1935), 100 Boots, 1971–1973, Gift of Marco Nocella, 2022.184:1-51. © 2023 Eleanor Antin.

Unidentified artist, Albumn de la Shirley Temple [sic], 1930s, Gift of Peter J. Cohen, 2022.183.

George P. Hall & Son (active 1886–1914), Lower Manhattan from the Brooklyn Bridge, ca. 1905, Purchased on the Photography Collectors, Committee Fund, 2022.181.

Carleton E. Watkins (1829–1916), View from the Property of Ira Cook, San Rafael, California, 1878-81, Purchased as the gift of friends in honor of Michael R. Bloomberg, 2023.60.

Gallery Images