Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography


{Tokyo 2 0 0 0}
American Perspectives:
Photographs from the Polaroid Collection
September 12 (Tues) - November 12 (Sun)

    In 1948, Professor Edwin H. Land, founder of the Polaroid Corporation, invented the first instant camera and the name Polaroid became the generic term for all instant photographs. He is quoted as saying, "This invention is the fruit of scientific and technological advances, but it will present artists who look at the world through an artistic eye, with a whole new range of possibilities." True to his words, the instantaneous reproductions presented by this camera was to become a symbol of the twentieth and would fascinate a large number of photographers and artists. Some of the greatest artists in the American art world including Ansel Adams, Andy Warhol, Chuck Close, Joyce Tenneson, Lucas Samaras, Ralph Gibson, David Levinthal, Peter Beard, James Radke created works with the cooperation of the Polaroid Collection. As a result of its policy of offering positive support to artists then acquiring the results, the Polaroid Collection now boasts over twenty-two thousands works.

    When we look back over the twentieth century we cannot ignore the United States, which, for better or worse, has become the most influential country in the world. From the beginning of the century when Europe still retained a great deal of influence and particularly since the Second World War, America has behaved as if it were the center of the world, militarily, industrially, technologically and culturally, In the Photographic field too, it has produced so many dazzling achievements that is no exaggeration to describe the twentieth century as being The American Century.

    In this exhibition we have made a careful selection of 162 works by 77 artists from the Polaroid Collection to not only examine the role played by instant photography, which has become symbolic to the twentieth century, but to consider the meaning of America and American Photography. In looking back over the twentieth century in this way , we hope to discover some vision of the new media and social structures that will dominate the next one hundred years.

curated by Michiko Kasahara, curator, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography
with association of Barbara Hitchcock, director, Polaroid Collection
and Noriko Fuku, independent curator

Artists
Ansel Adams, Shelby Lee Adams, Peter Beard, Niki Berg, Zeke Berman, Dawoud Bey, Michael Bishop, Drex Brooks, Bill Burke, Marsha Burns, Nancy Burson, Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, Paul Camponigro, Ellen Carey, Mark Chamberlain and Jerry Burchfield, Albert Chong, William Christenberry, William Clift, Chuck Close, Marie Cosindas, Eileen Cowin, Barbara Crane, Fred Cray, Robert Cunming, Alma Davenport, Rita Dewitt, Dennis Farber, Sandi Fellman, Phyllis Galembo, Tyrone Georgiou, Mark Gerlovina, Ralph Gibson, Peter Goin, Jim Goldberg, Jan Groover, Philippe Halsman, Robert Heinecken, Rick Hock, David Hockney, Bela Kalman, Barbara Kasten, Weston Kemp, David Levinthal, Constantine Manos, Robert McClintock, Bob H. Miller, Lloyd E. Moore, Patrick Nagatani, Joyce Neimanas, Elaine O'Neil, J. Wayne Olson, Olivia Parker, James Radke,Vicki Lee Ragan, Victor Raphael, Robert Rauschenburg, John Reuter, Linda Robbennolt, Lucas Samaras, Andres Serrano, Lorna Simpson, Aaron Siskind, Neal Slavin, Gerald Slota, Eve Sonneman, Iris Spellings, Bert Stern, Martin Stupich, Joyce Tenneson, Jerry Uelsmann, Catherine Wagner,Melanie Walker, Andy Warhol, Carrie Mae Weems, William Wegman, Jo Whaley, Thomas S. Young


a total of 77 artists, 162 works