Review of the exhibition Public Eye: 175 Years of Sharing Photography at the New York Public Library (NYPL), Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, on view from December 12, 2014 to January 3, 2016.
Published in Studija 100, no. 1 (2015): 72-77. In Latvian only.
Because I contributed to the making of the exhibition, this essay is more of an “insider’s” take on it than a critical analysis from an “outsider’s” viewpoint. Read more about my contributions to the exhibition at the end of this post.
Download the article pdf, or click on any of the three images below to download the pdf.
View article on the Studija magazine online archive.
Brief information about the exhibition on the NYPL website.
View a short video about the exhibition Public Eye: 175 Years of Sharing Photography on YouTube or below:
Brief description of the exhibition:
“Thanks to the development of new technology and social media, more photographs are created, viewed, and shared today than ever before. Public Eye, the first-ever retrospective survey of photography organized by NYPL, takes advantage of this moment to reframe the way we look at photographs from the past. What are some of the platforms and networks through which photographs have been shared? In what ways have we, as photography’s public and one of its subjects, been engaged over time? To what ends has the street served as a venue for photographic practice since its beginnings? And, of more recent concern, are we risking our privacy in pursuit of a more public photography? Ranging from photography’s official announcement in 1839 to manifestations of its current pervasiveness, this landmark exhibition, drawn entirely from the Library’s collections, explores the various ways in which photography has been shared and made public. Photography has always been social.”
I contributed to the making of the exhibition in two ways:
(1) I co-wrote several annotation labels under the guidance of the curatorial assistant, art historian Elizabeth Cronin.
Photo: © Hon Sun Lam.
(2) I contributed to the creation of On Broadway, an interactive installation that visualizes the digital traces of life in a twenty-first century city by compiling images and other data collected along the thirteen miles of Broadway that span Manhattan.
On Broadway is a project by Daniel Goddemeyer, Moritz Stefaner, Dominikus Baur, and Lev Manovich.
Read more about On Broadway on its dedicated website, http://on-broadway.nyc/
Photo: © Hon Sun Lam.
Public Eye: 175 Years of Sharing Photography at the New York Public Library. Photo: © Alise Tifentale.
Public Eye: 175 Years of Sharing Photography at the New York Public Library. Photo: © Alise Tifentale.
Public Eye: 175 Years of Sharing Photography at the New York Public Library. Photo: © Alise Tifentale.
Public Eye: 175 Years of Sharing Photography at the New York Public Library. Photo: © Alise Tifentale.
Public Eye: 175 Years of Sharing Photography at the New York Public Library. Photo: © Alise Tifentale.
Public Eye: 175 Years of Sharing Photography at the New York Public Library. Photo: © Alise Tifentale.