MoMA | Author: Dan Leers

Posts by Dan Leers

October 6, 2011 | Artists, Collection & Exhibitions

New Photography 2011: A Multitude of Voices

Posted by Dan Leers, Beaumont and Nancy Newhall Curatorial Fellow, Department of Photography

In January of this year, when we first began discussing artists to include in New Photography 2011</a>, I outlined my hopes for the exhibition to my colleagues in the Department of Photography.

Exciting New Acquisitions On View in the Photography Galleries

Posted by Dan Leers, Beaumont and Nancy Newhall Curatorial Fellow, Department of Photography

Tina Barney. Mr. and Mrs. Castelli, W Magazine. 1998. Chromogenic color print, printed 2010. The Museum of Modern Art. Acquired through the generosity of Jo Carole and Ronald S. Lauder. © 2011 Tina Barney

We reinstall the permanent collection in the first five rooms of The Edward Steichen Photography galleries at least once a year, in order to continuously have on view a selection of outstanding works from the Museum’s collection. Each new display is organized differently, but all of them aim to suggest the vitality and richness of photography’s creative traditions.

At Home Everywhere: The Travels of Henri Cartier-Bresson

Posted by Dan Leers, Beaumont and Nancy Newhall Curatorial Fellow, Department of Photography

Henri Cartier-Bresson. Shanghai. 1948. Gelatin silver print, printed 1971. The Museum of Modern Art. Acquired through the generosity of Robert B. Menschel. © 2010 Henri Cartier-Bresson/Magnum Photos, courtesy Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson, Paris

I tracked Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908–2004) from England to India to Indonesia and back. He was in England for the coronation of King George VI; he was in India when Gandhi was assassinated; he was in Indonesia as the nation gained independence from the Dutch. He was seemingly everywhere.

I know because it was my job to compile all of Cartier-Bresson’s photo captions, notes, datebooks, and correspondence from his travels, which covered the better part of the 50 years he was actively working as a photographer. I then had to transform this into a comprehensive yet comprehensible chronology that would appear in the catalogue of the exhibition Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Modern Century.