LIBRARY OF CONGRESS MAGAZINE NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020 GREAT PHOTOGRAPHS Inside They’ll Do Anything To Get the Shot Chronicling Life During COVID-19 Plus ‘Not an Ostrich’ A War in Pictures American Gothic FEATURES 02 10 14 19 Great Photographs ‘Not an Ostrich’ Getting the Shot ‘American Gothic’ Images from the Library’s Exhibit of images explores Photographers will do just Parks chronicled the life collections hold the power the whimsical and serious about anything to capture of a Black worker — and to educate and inspire. sides of American life. the perfect image. created a masterpiece. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS MAGAZINE ▪ On the cover: Photographer Margaret Bourke-White, holding a large- format camera, perches atop an eagle-shaped gargoyle at the summit of the Chrysler Building in New York City in this photo by Oscar Graubner, circa 1930. Prints and Photographs Division LIBRARY OF CONGRESS MAGAZINE DEPARTMENTS NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2020 VOL. 9 NO. 5 Mission of the 4 Trending Library of Congress The Library’s mission is to engage, 5 Off the Shelf inspire and inform Congress and the American people with a universal and enduring source of 23 Online Offerings knowledge and creativity. 24 My Job Library of Congress Magazine is issued bimonthly by the Office of 4 Communications of the Library 25 News Briefs of Congress and distributed free of charge to publicly 26 Shop the Library supported libraries and research institutions, donors, academic libraries, learned societies and 27 Support the Library allied organizations in the United States. Research institutions and educational organizations in other 28 Last Word countries may arrange to receive Library of Congress Magazine on an exchange basis by applying in writing to the Library’s Director for Acquisitions and Bibliographic Access, 101 Independence Ave. S.E., Washington DC 20540- 4100. LCM is also available on the web at loc.gov/lcm/. All 5 other correspondence should be addressed to the Office of Communications, Library of Congress, 101 Independence Ave. S.E., Washington DC 20540-1610. [email protected] loc.gov/lcm ISSN 2169-0855 (print) ISSN 2169-0863 (online) Carla Hayden Librarian of Congress April Slayton Executive Editor Mark Hartsell 24 Editor Ashley Jones ▪ Opposite: African American Designer photographer Thomas Askew included Shawn Miller his two sets of twin sons in this musical Photo Editor portrait created for display at the 1900 World’s Fair in Paris. “Summit Avenue Contributors Ensemble, Atlanta, Georgia.” 1899 or 1900. Katherine Blood Gelatin silver print. Prints and Photographs Beverly Brannan Division. Ryan Brubacher Kristi Finefield Micah Messenheimer Mari Nakahara CONNECT ON Barbara Natanson loc.gov/connect Adam Silvia 28 Anne Wilkes Tucker Helena Zinkham NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020 LOC.GOV/LCM 1 GREAT PHOTOGRAPHS 2 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS MAGAZINE Images from the Library’s collection inspire, educate and invite viewers to take a deeper look. “What a great photo!” I use that phrase often while working at the Library of Congress, where the collections offer more than 14 million photographs. When LCM asked for about 25 great photographs, literally hundreds of images came to mind. As Ansel Adams wrote, “Photography, as a powerful medium of expression and communications, offers an infinite variety of perception, interpretation and execution.” I asked curators and reference librarians in the Prints and Photographs Division to join me in selecting and describing images that had attracted their special interest. Great photographs have been created from the earliest days of the medium in the early 1800s right up to the present day. Pictures of people dominated our choices, along with landscapes, action shots, architecture and still life scenes. We included quite a few contemporary photographs that help us see what we might not otherwise notice. Several essential qualities of great photography emerged. Extraordinary photos stop you in your tracks. They speak to you directly. They make you look deeply as they offer pleasure in an artistic composition, awake strong emotional responses, inspire curiosity to learn more about the scene, or provoke you to action. Like great literature, extraordinary photographs also attract debate about their meaning. Do the portraits known as “Migrant Mother” and “American Gothic” represent despair and hardship or a determination to survive? Photographic masterpieces can also be a call to action, such as Lewis Hine’s memorable portrait of the young shrimper Manuel. They are a source of cultural pride like “Our Lady of the Iguanas” and Wendy Red Star’s family portrait. Exceptional photographs can have a magical aspect that invites you to walk inside the image. They communicate with immediate impact in a universal language. Photographer Shawn Walker, for example, vividly documented his community in Harlem, New York, for more than 50 years. Often, there is more to the story of a photo than what we see at first. The backstory about how or why an image was created can enrich our appreciation of a photograph. We hope you will enjoy these fascinating photographs, and please visit us online or in person to discover more great photographs that speak to you! ▪ Shawn Walker. “African American Day —Helena Zinkham is the chief of the Parade, Adam Clayton Prints and Photographs Division. Powell Jr. Blvd. at West 111th St., Harlem, New York City.” 1992-1995. © Shawn Walker, used by permission. Prints and Photographs Division. NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020 LOC.GOV/LCM 3 TRENDING ▪ Camilo J. Vergara. locations with great population density “Buying paper towels, and rich diversity, are visual proof of how 82nd at Roosevelt Ave., COLLECTING some of the most vulnerable Americans Queens.” April 25, 2020. responded to new orders to stay at home, Digital photograph. CURRENT EVENTS social distance and wear masks. The © Camilo Vergara, inventiveness of small business owners are used by permission. The Library documents Prints and Photographs portrayed vividly and humanely, as are the Division. contemporary issues such as pandemic’s effects on shopping habits and fashion trends and familial interactions and Camilo J. Vergara. COVID-19 and social justice. health practices. “George Floyd memorial, 884 Broadway, When the COVID-19 pandemic put the city “I move away when people get too close or Brooklyn.” July 3, 2020. that never sleeps to bed, photographer are loud,” Vergara says. “A few times I got Digital photograph. Camilo José Vergara’s dedication to off a crowded bus or subway out of fear of Prints and Photographs documenting poor neighborhoods in the Division. becoming infected. Sometimes people have New York City region increased significantly. felt insulted by my distancing.” Starting in March 2020, Vergara put on a The Library is acquiring many websites, respirator each day and traveled by foot publications and special collections to or public transportation to record the daily preserve the history of the COVID-19 changes in public life at major intersections pandemic. Vergara’s photographs stand out in the hard-hit communities of Queens, the as unique frontline reports that give voice to Bronx, Brooklyn and Harlem in New York City underrepresented communities — including and Newark and Camden in New Jersey. the Black Lives Matter movement. These cities also are the areas Vergara has Vergara’s deep commitment to his been photographing for almost 50 years for subjects already has been recognized with his major project, “Tracking Time.” “These a MacArthur Fellowship and a National crossroads” Vergara says, “are social Humanities medal. Earning the new job condensers and amplifiers, yet they are title as an “essential worker” is just as barely mentioned in media depictions of the meaningful. virus and its impact.” —Mari Nakahara is a curator in the Prints and His pandemic photographs, taken at Photographs Division. 4 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS MAGAZINE OFF THE SHELF A WAR IN PICTURES Library preserves a rare album of photos from the Civil War. With a commission as an artist and acting assistant quartermaster for the U.S. Military Railroad Construction Corps, Andrew Joseph Russell was likely the only officer who also served as a photographer during the Civil War. In 2018, the Library had a singular opportunity to acquire an intact album of Civil War photographs created by Russell. Albums of his photography from this period are extremely rare. The few known copies, bound and unbound, vary greatly in the pictures they include, indicating that each was individually assembled for recipients such as Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock, who once owned this album. While the album arrived in acceptable condition, the Library’s conservation staff treated and rehoused it so that it will continue to be a gem for future generations to come. Many pages were covered with an accumulated layer of soot that conservator Adrienne Lundgren removed through delicate surface cleaning, revealing the gorgeous warm black tonality of the 108 albumen prints within. Page edges were reinforced with tissue and cover boards consolidated to mitigate potential damage from handling. Conservation technician Annie Immediata designed and crafted an intricate clamshell housing that acts as both storage container and display cradle to safely support the heavy weight of the album for viewing. To avoid future degradation, the clamshell was assembled using nonreactive materials such as linen tape and wheat starch paste. Russell’s last body of Civil War work — a series of photos of the ruins of Richmond made in 1865 after the Confederates burned their capital city to keep supplies out of Union hands — is among his most ▪ Top: The Civil War album rests in a cradle box poetic. Russell was familiar with painting specially built to provide support. Prints and conventions and likely aimed to replicate Photographs Division. these in his photographic work. Bottom: Andrew J. Russell. “Ruins at Richmond, Va.” April 1865. Albumen print. Prints and Such pictures reveal that photography Photographs Division. was always a subjective and creative pursuit even when made under the most restrictive of circumstances.