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Getty Museum presents ‘Once. Again. Photographs in Series’

Milton Rogovin - Michael and Pam

LEFT: Michael and Pam, 1973, Milton Rogovin (American, 1909 – 2011). Gelatin silver print. Image: 17.9 × 17.4 cm (7 1/16 × 6 7/8 in.). 97.XM.43.3.1. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. © Milton Rogovin. CENTER: Michael and Pam, 1984, Milton Rogovin (American, 1909 – 2011). Gelatin silver print. Image: 17.5 × 16.3 cm (6 7/8 × 6 7/16 in.). 97.XM.43.3.2. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. © Milton Rogovin. RIGHT: Michael and Pam, 1992, Milton Rogovin (American, 1909 – 2011). Gelatin silver print. Image: 17.6 × 16.7 cm (6 15/16 × 6 9/16 in.). 97.XM.43.3.3. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. © Milton Rogovin.

Getty presents ‘Once. Again. Photographs in Series’ ‘Once. Again. Photographs in Series’, on view July 9 -November 10, 2019 at the J. Paul Getty Museum, features historical and contemporary artists who have revisited people and places to make extended photographic series, prompting reflection on the impact of the passage of time—on photographers as well as their subjects.]]>

Source: J. Paul Getty Museum, Getty Center

Photographing friends and family is a familiar pastime for many, and the exhibition includes the work of several artists who made masterful portraits of loved ones over the course of many years. Alfred Stieglitz photographed artist Georgia O’Keeffe frequently during their tumultuous 30 year relationship, and the photographs on view expose shifts in their rapport as well as changes in Stieglitz’s photographic style over time. Series by Harry Callahan of his wife Eleanor, Paul Strand of his wife, artist Rebecca Salsbury, and Julia Margaret Cameron of her niece Julia Jackson similarly offer fascinating reflections on the changes in relationships over time.

The exhibition also includes compelling contemporary portraits, including photojournalist Seamus Murphy’s record of the physical and emotional toll inflicted upon a family living in Afghanistan under rule of the Taliban, and Donna Ferrato’s documentation of a woman who fled an abusive relationship. Both series register the struggles as well as triumphs.

A number of artists in the exhibition document seasonal and man-made changes in the landscape. In a 1953 series by William A. Garnett, aerial photography is used to captures a walnut grove before and after the trees were felled to make way for a housing development. The startling perspective of Garnett’s images came to play an important role in the burgeoning environmental movement. Richard Misrach used his move to a new home in the hills above Berkeley, California, as an opportunity to take hundreds of photographs of the astonishing range of colors and atmospheric conditions surrounding the Golden Gate Bridge at sunset each evening. Several of his richly saturated sunset images are featured in the exhibition. Works by Roni Horn, Jem Southam, and Josef Sudek also trace changes in the natural world, to both political and poetic effect.

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Getty Museum presents ‘Once. Again. Photographs in Series’