Ideas in Things

Thomas F. Barrow (American b. 1938).
LANDSCAPE 1981–82. Gelatin silver print with
caulk, staples, and spray paint. Purchased
with funds from Charina Foundation. George Eastman
House collections. 1989:1120:0001.

Until the digital turn most photographs existed simultaneously as both images and objects. Even now it is as objects that photographs most fully enter our lives. It is not the image but the thing that bears the image that we write on, tear up in anger, brandish or burn in protest, kiss, touch or install in wallets, on bedside tables, or refrigerators. It is the object not the image that museums have traditionally kept, cared for, catalogued and stored. It is the object that is bought and sold, given away or inherited.

This exhibition of unique photographs drawn from the George Eastman House collection is divided into four sections: We cut them up, We write on them, We juxtapose them, We embellish them. With everything from an albumen print by Julia Margaret Cameron, proof prints by Edward Steichen and a contemporary daguerreotype by Binh Dahn, this exhibition encompasses the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries as well as a large spectrum of photographic practices.

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