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Introduction

Collective Recollection

July 27, 2018 - January 20, 2019

Since the invention of photography in 1839, amateur and professional photographers alike have captured moments when people come together, creating personally meaningful keepsakes and significant historical documents. These photographs act as records; they are collected and held on to, engaged with time and again, allowing viewers to remember and even reimagine the subjects and events pictured. In this way, photography forms notions of who belongs—and who doesn’t—to a group.

People frequently use photography to represent their own lived and shared experiences, portraying friends, family, peers, and themselves. People have also employed photography to categorize others—often according to biases and with lasting repercussions. Frequently the line falls somewhere in between, as many photographers, working with respectful intentions, have depicted groups of which they were not a part. When images circulate, they also take on other meanings, depending on the viewer’s perspective, adding yet another layer of interpretation.

The photographs in this gallery create and recall various collective identities and experiences, encouraging us to consider who has the power to shape the representation of selfhood—the subject, the photographer, or the viewer?

Allison Pappas
Brown University Graduate Student Assistant
Department of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs
RISD Museum 2017–2018

Selected Objects

Aaron Siskind

Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, 1932-1940

Conly Studio

Portrait of Cora Nash, late 1800s

Garry Winogrand

New York City, 1971

Walker Evans

Detail from Penny Picture Display Window, Savannah, Georgia, 1936

J. Pascal Sébah

Posed Soldiers Thrusting Canon Loading-Pole Towards the Camera, late 1800s

Danny Lyon

The Line, Ferguson Unit, Texas, 1967-1969

Kusakabe Kimbei, studio

Sumo Wrestlers, 1863–1914

British

Alpine Landscape with Figures, ca. 1860

Lisette Model

Running Feet, 5th Avenue, 1940

Aaron Siskind

Untitled, 1932-1940

Sebastião Salgado

A Moment of Rest, Serra Pelada Mine, 1986

Agustín Victor Casasola

A Village Evacuation During the Ten Tragic Days, February, 1913, 1913

Lewis Wickes Hine

Royal Mill Workers, River Point, Rhode Island, 1909

R. Mole

Great Lakes, Illinois, 1920

Gordon Parks

Boys in Car Window, Harlem, ca. 1950s

Morris Engel

Coney Island, 1939

Jules Aarons

Strutting, North End, Boston, 1955

Ernest C. Withers

Lionel Hampton, The Hippodrome, 1950's

Henry Horenstein

Bartender, Tootsie's Orchid Lounge, Nashville, Tennessee, 1974

Annu Palakunnathu Matthew

Types, 2005

Susan Meiselas

Before the Show, Tunbridge, Vermont, 1974

Unknown artist

Group Portrait of Athletes, ca. 1880s

American

Untitled, August 1944

American

Untitled, ca. 1930s

American

Untitled, ca. 1980s

American

Untitled, ca. 1890s

American

Untitled, ca. 1970s

American

Laguna, ca. 1930s

American

Untitled, ca. 1940s

American

Peggy, July 22, 1942

American

Untitled, ca. 1950

American

Untitled, ca. 1920s

American

Untitled, ca. 1940s

American

Untitled, ca. 1953

American

Hazel's Birthday Party, Age 21, Chicago, Illinois, ca. 1940s

American

Ruth Brandon Hosey, World Series Game, October 7, 1937

American

Untitled, ca. 1930s

American

Rabbits Maybe, ca. 1950

American

Untitled, ca. 1930s

American

Untitled, May 1969

Bruce Davidson

Martin Luther King Jr. at a Press Conference, Birmingham, Alabama, 1962 (printed later)

James Van Der Zee

Reception in the Office of the CJ Walker Company, 1929

Sanlé Sory

The Young Music Lovers (Les Jeunes Mélomanes), 1974 (printed 2017)

Jyoti Bhatt

Haryana Women Making “Sanjhi” at Craft Village, New Delhi, 1977

American

Untitled, ca. 1970s

American

Untitled, ca. 1950s

American

Untitled, ca. 1950s

American

Untitled, ca. 1910s

American

Untitled, ca. 1950s

American

Untitled, 1953

American

Untitled, ca. 1950s

American

Untitled, June 1916

American

Untitled, ca. 1940s

American

Untitled, 1962

American

Untitled, January 1951

American

Untitled, ca. 1950s

More objects +

Exhibition Checklist

Collective Recollection

July 27, 2018 - January 20, 2019
View Checklist PDF

RISD Museum

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