Center for Creative Photography

In 1934, a heated exchange between photographic factions encouraged readers of Camera Craft to consider the future of the medium. A small group of California photographers were challenging the soft-focus, pictorialist style still widely in vogue on the West coast. They argued that the painterly, often theatrical productions of the pictorialists were passé, and that the appropriate direction for the photographic arts exploited characteristics inherent to the camera’s mechanical nature: sharp focus and great depth of field. To capitalize on this they used large format cameras and made exquisite contact prints on glossy paper to preserve the wealth of detail captured in the negative. Their subjects - arranged still lives, industrial and architectural views, close-ups from nature, and portraits - were selected for their photographic potential, with rich textures and strong forms.

That small association of innovators - named Group f/64 after the camera’s smallest aperture, which produced the greatest depth of field - included Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Imogen Cunningham, Willard Van Dyke, Alma Lavenson and others. Their vision came to be known as "straight" photography, in contrast to the manipulation typical of their pictorialist opponents. That straight vision became so widely accepted and championed, it no longer appears as shockingly modern as it did to audiences of the 1930s. Furthermore, the triumph of the short-lived but influential Group f/64 has caused the pictorialist side of the debate to fade into near obscurity. This exhibition endeavors to revive the controversy, not only to acknowledge the pictorialists’ arguments, but to illustrate how avant-garde straight photography once was. This is the first exhibition to provide a substantial consideration of the group since 1992, and is unique in its inclusion of pictorialist examples to illustrate the debate.

Exhibition photographers include Pictorialists Anne Brigman, William Dassonville, Johan Hagemeyer, Margrethe Mather, William Mortensen and Karl Struss and from the Group f.64: Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, Alma Lavenson, Sonya Noskowiak, Willard Van Dyke, Brett Weston, Edward Weston .

The Center is uniquely positioned to present an exhibition about Group f/64 from its major collections of group members Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, and Sonya Noskowiak and affiliates Brett Weston and Alma Lavenson.

Susan Ehrens, noted author, curator, and photography historian, will look at three California women photographers who created significant and unique bodies of work. Assessing their contributions to Pictorialist and Modernist traditions in photography, Ehrens will also examine their relationships to each other and to other members of Group f/64.

Join Becky Senf, who organized Debating Modern Photography: The Triumph of Group f/64, on a gallery walk as she discusses the exhibition premise and highlights the artists and works on view. Senf is the Center's new Norton Family Assistant Curator.

Joan Fontcuberta, internationally acclaimed artist, curator, and theoretical writer, will discuss the tension between truth and beauty that has propelled photography's evolution since its origin. Relevant photographic contributions to the aesthetic and ontological issues present in this tension include the examples of Group f/64, contemporary practice and Fontcuberta's own work.