Gallery: Powerful Partners
Powerful Partners, a gallery at the National Portrait gallery is one of old age and one of incredible value. Not only does it have purposeful placement (not only in their order) but the presentation as a whole is incredibly well done.
To start off, the order they were arranged in was roughly by their age (as born) with the oldest to the left and wrapping around. Alongside this, the men being featured had their wifes next to them, as a symbol of support and companionship to the best of my knowledge. In history, the support of a woman would dictate your value especially in the early years of America being formed. This was the early 1800s before a majority of rights were also allowed for women which is very interesting.
Next, their framing is quite important. Each picture looks to be a contact print of a small medium format camera. I do not have any proof of this, but given the black borders surrounding it and the clear cuts, that is what I suspect. Either that or a very precise 35mm small enlarged image. Additionally, within the window cuts, there is quite a lot of empty space. This could be to signify the importance of the people and the power they have, or it could be simply a random design choice by the person creating the exibit. I also noticed that the window cuts in the images had the same imperfections that mine did for critique two and three, leading me to the assumption that the cuts were not made by a machine but rather hand assembled.
The frames were also using a type of glass that didn’t have any sort of reflection, meaning we can feel as if the image has no barrier to us.
Overall, I think this exhibit was quite interesting. It’s incredibly small and contemporary, both with its final design but also with where it was physically located within the museum. It’s right off the top of a spiral staircase, which builds up the feeling of “power” it's trying to present. It also is in a very refined museum that feels both pretentious but also intimate. It is also the first time I’ve been to this museum, and I found a lot more in this museum than I was planning to (including a courtyard named after the Kogods?)
Historically, I also thought this was an incredibly important exhibit and the designs made by the person hanging it (who I assume are different than the artist) made an interesting decision to leave the remaining darkroom light in the frames and not cropping directly on the edge of the picture. Although this isn’t something that is super important I thought it was worth mentioning because it was a decision that was made by (potentially) a collection of artists and historians that is now a final way to protect and memorialize this history. I would go back to this museum in a heartbeat on days I had more time, not just for the photography exhibits, but also to explore the rest of it.
To start off, the order they were arranged in was roughly by their age (as born) with the oldest to the left and wrapping around. Alongside this, the men being featured had their wifes next to them, as a symbol of support and companionship to the best of my knowledge. In history, the support of a woman would dictate your value especially in the early years of America being formed. This was the early 1800s before a majority of rights were also allowed for women which is very interesting.
Next, their framing is quite important. Each picture looks to be a contact print of a small medium format camera. I do not have any proof of this, but given the black borders surrounding it and the clear cuts, that is what I suspect. Either that or a very precise 35mm small enlarged image. Additionally, within the window cuts, there is quite a lot of empty space. This could be to signify the importance of the people and the power they have, or it could be simply a random design choice by the person creating the exibit. I also noticed that the window cuts in the images had the same imperfections that mine did for critique two and three, leading me to the assumption that the cuts were not made by a machine but rather hand assembled.
The frames were also using a type of glass that didn’t have any sort of reflection, meaning we can feel as if the image has no barrier to us.
Overall, I think this exhibit was quite interesting. It’s incredibly small and contemporary, both with its final design but also with where it was physically located within the museum. It’s right off the top of a spiral staircase, which builds up the feeling of “power” it's trying to present. It also is in a very refined museum that feels both pretentious but also intimate. It is also the first time I’ve been to this museum, and I found a lot more in this museum than I was planning to (including a courtyard named after the Kogods?)
Historically, I also thought this was an incredibly important exhibit and the designs made by the person hanging it (who I assume are different than the artist) made an interesting decision to leave the remaining darkroom light in the frames and not cropping directly on the edge of the picture. Although this isn’t something that is super important I thought it was worth mentioning because it was a decision that was made by (potentially) a collection of artists and historians that is now a final way to protect and memorialize this history. I would go back to this museum in a heartbeat on days I had more time, not just for the photography exhibits, but also to explore the rest of it.