EXHIBITIONS BY YEAR
New Photography: Zeke Berman, Antonio Mendoza, Judith Joy Ross, and Michael Spano
22 August to 3 December 1985
MoMA Staff
Artists
New York Times Review of the exhibition
PUBLISHED
15 September 1985
THE MODERN FOCUSES ON CONTEMPORARY VISIONS
What's new? The question, endemic to our fashionable culture, can never be put to rest. We have seen, in photography in the last 20 years, ''New Documents,'' ''New Topographics,'' ''New Pictorialism,'' ''New Landscapes,'' ''New Color'' - all categories invented to designate the presence of something novel and therefore, it is assumed, interesting. Now there is ''New Photography,'' an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art of 45 photographs by four relatively little-known image makers. Given the show's title, and the authority of its curator, John Szarkowski, who directs the museum's Department of Photography, ''New Photography'' could be expected to satisfy our yearning for the new for at least the immediate future. The four photographers are Zeke Berman, Antonio Mendoza, Judith Joy Ross and Michael Spano. They range in age from the early 30's to early 40's, and they live and work in New York except for Miss Ross, who hails from Pennsylvania. None is exactly an unknown; they all have been making photographs for several years and have gained some recognition for their efforts, including fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts. But in terms of their careers, it would be fair to say that they are just hitting their strides.
New York Times • Arts • page 29 • 1,330 words