Photography As A Mirror?
Lola Flash (born 1959, Montclair, NJ; active New York, NY), The Kiss, London, from the series Cross-Colour, ca. 1991. Chromogenic print; 50.8 × 40.6 cm. Princeton University Art Museum. Museum purchase, Fowler McCormick, Class of 1921, Fund (2023-50). © Lola Flash
Princeton University Art Museum
The inventor and theorist Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. described photography, following its debut in 1839, as “the mirror with a memory.” He argued that photographs are direct transfers from reality, much like reflections in a mirror, that provide an objective look at society, with a special ability to raise awareness for social causes.
This display considers the underpinnings of photography’s claim that it can truthfully represent its subject and interrogates how this supposed guarantee of veracity informs the making and reception of a selection of photographs drawn from the Museum’s collections.
Some of the works on view serve to provide visibility, inform public opinion, and reflect different communities’ experiences. Others complicate the idea that photographs act as accurate reflections of reality as they foreground methods used to stage, alter, and exploit images. All the works invite questions about how much photography can serve as a mirror.
Curated by
Peter C. Bunnell Senior Curator of Photography
,Princeton University Art Museum
