If you are looking for a little escape from American politics these days, American job: 1940-2011Now at view at the International Photography Center, is not the show for you. This exhibition presents the disputed history of work in the United States, bringing together images of more than 40 photographers who have documented the organization of work, strikes, protests against gender inequalities and racial, mass unemployment, the effects of economic restructuring, political campaigns and – of course – people's jobs, from the extraction of coal to domestic labor. Some images suddenly cut; When I visited, a woman was calmly torn herself up in front of the photography of Ernest Withers in 1968 black sanitation workers holding panels that said “I am a man”. If you are rather trying to merge into history and you could benefit from seeing that our present is not apocalyptically singular but rather the continuation of a long, long fight, then American work is worth a visit. I am tempted to call the exhibition “in a timely”, but when would it not have been?
“Don't cry, organize!” Labor activist Joe Hill wrote in a quote reprinted on the gallery wall. Although technically the title of only one of the five chronological sections of the exhibition, most of the photographs exhibited represent people acting on this feeling. Some of the images are famous, such as the dynamic photographs of Cornell Capa in the 1960 presidential campaign of John F. Kennedy, or photo test of W. Eugene Smith “nurse”, who told the work of Maude Callen, a medical professional who worked 24 hours a day to take care of thousands of poor patients, mainly black in South Carolina. The two series have largely circulated by their publication in LifeA photographic magazine whose weekly problems have reached a quarter of the United States population at the top of its popularity.
Much more of the exhibition photographs – often striking crowds or mass political assemblies – are not so known. Some photographers are not identified. As we see, anonymity is sometimes imposed from top to bottom. A number of previous images are photographers associated with Workers' films and photo leagueAn organization that believed in the camera as a tool for radical social change and has taught photography to many New Yorkers in the working class for this purpose. The league erupted and renamed more than once before being put on black list for its left-wing policy and finally stifled by the United States Ministry of Justice in 1951. Is American history a circle? This exposure offers useful measures to judge.
However, when it comes to understanding the unique role of photography in this story beyond the simple fact of its existence, American work on leash a lack. Yes, we get a lot of context, and the show provides a useful photographic chronology from 1940 to 2011. But do not expect to leave with a better understanding of the way the presence of the camera sometimes literally shaped these momentsHow photography is used to build stories, how these images have circulated, that they have reached the types of people they represent, the different types of work necessary to do and disseminate photographs, or even photography itself as a work. In addition to this, a specific average institution like ICP should direct the pack in its physical presentation of photographs, while many works framed here are obscured by the dazzling of air lighting on reflective glazing. This exhibition would work very well if it was shown in a history museum, but this is not the case.
American job: 1940-2011 Continue to the International Museum of the Photography Center (84, rue Ludlow, Lower East Side, Manhattan) until May 5. The exhibition was organized by Makeda Best.
