Blogs

documentary photography

Curator’s Corner

Art about Working People

Tuesday, September 5, 2023 | Karl Cole

The earliest ideas about a day to honor working Americans came about from labor unions in the 1880s. In fact, the idea of a national holiday is thought to have come from labor union officials in New Y ...

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Curator’s Corner

Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month 2023: Chan Chao

Tuesday, May 30, 2023 | Karl Cole

Photography was a groundbreaking art form when it was first introduced. Quite soon after its development, numerous Western photographers explored photography for documentary and journalistic purposes. ...

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Curator’s Corner

Women's History Month 2023: Lucy Ashjian

Monday, March 20, 2023 | Karl Cole

In the first half of the 1900s, there were numerous pioneering women documentary photographers who defined the genre. This was particularly true during the Great Depression (1929–1940), the seve ...

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Curator’s Corner

Facing the Past: Jennifer Karady

Monday, January 9, 2023 | Karl Cole

Many people would probably prefer to forget about the wars in both Afghanistan and Iraq, but there is something therapeutic about facing them and admitting they happened. Artist Jennifer Karady uses h ...

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Curator’s Corner

A Visual Tribute to Labor Day Week 2022

Monday, September 5, 2022 | Karl Cole

Aside from the myth of Sunday as a “day of rest” in the West, it’s interesting to me that there is only one day a year that celebrates “labor” in the U.S. The movement to ...

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Curator’s Corner

Pride Month 2021 II: Berenice Abbott

Monday, June 7, 2021 | Karl Cole

By the time of the severe world economic downturn of the Great Depression (1929–1940) in America, many women artists were professional photographers and extremely successful in the field of ...

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Curator’s Corner

A Christmas Card: Mary Ellen Mark

Monday, December 16, 2019 | Karl Cole

Leave it to Mary Ellen Mark to sum up the ironies of a time of year that is touted as “joyous” and “home for the holidays” in social media! Kudos to the late artist for pointin ...

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Curator’s Corner

Compassion in Art, part 2

Tuesday, October 30, 2018 | Karl Cole

My Compassion in Art series continues with a look at the subject in photography. ...

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Curator’s Corner

Afterthoughts About Being Thankful

Friday, December 4, 2015 | Karl Cole

Now that we’re done saying how grateful we are for all the food with which we stuffed ourselves on Thanksgiving, and for our iPhones, and the gift of being able to drive one person per car to wo ...

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Curator’s Corner

Artists and Refugees

Monday, July 14, 2014 | Karl Cole

It often astounds me how little we learn from history (and by “we” I mean we human beings: any culture on this planet!). If you need reminding, I mention the massive immigrant/refugee cris ...

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Curator’s Corner

Unsung Heroes

Monday, June 23, 2014 | Karl Cole

There are many ways to be a hero. I by no means denigrate our men and women in the armed services, who have given their all recently in two wars (one of which should never have happened). But, there a ...

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Curator’s Corner

Empathetic Photographer

Monday, November 1, 2010 | Karl Cole

The creative impulse is universal; I think we can all pretty much agree on that. I think we can also all agree that photography is fine art. It’s always neat when photographers document other cr ...

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Curator’s Corner

Woman Documentary Photographer

Monday, December 22, 2008 | Karl Cole

Did you know that photography was the first art form women were actually encouraged to explore during the 1800s? At that time, women were not allowed to study in most academic art schools. Have your s ...

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