Following a period of social and political turbulence, the 1970s saw many photographers turning away from the street and toward the private sphere. Some artists pointed their cameras at themselves and at close family members engaging in everyday activities. Others found psychologically charged symbolism in domestic objects, from toasters to ironing boards. Still others revealed how pop culture seeped into and shaped the home by way of television and other media.
By exploring the sociological landscape of life at home, artists like Zofia Rydet captured the personal preoccupations of the era. “[My work] is intended to present a faithful portrait of man in his everyday environment, this cocoon of sorts that he has himself created,” Rydet reflected. This environment “becomes the decor of his immediate surroundings, the interior, but which also exposes his psyche.”
Organized by Lucy Gallun, Associate Curator, Department of Photography, with Danielle Johnson, former Curatorial Assistant, Department of Drawings and Prints.
