The following is a guest post by Beverly Brannan, Curator of Photography; Adam Silvia, Associate Curator of Photography; and Helena Zinkham, Chief, Prints and Photographs Division.
The Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles, California, has created a lively exhibition called “Not an Ostrich: And Other Images from America’s Library.” In support of the show, more than 300 digitized images are newly available online for everyone to see! An estimated 200 of the pictures are free to use and re-use. The selections come from the Prints and Photographs Division, home to one of the largest and most diverse photography collections in the United States.
“Each photograph exposes us to just a fraction of the millions of American stories held in the Library of Congress, from the iconic to the absurd,” said Annenberg Foundation Chairman of the Board, President, and CEO Wallis Annenberg. “Though cameras and technology have changed over the years, this exhibition shows us that nothing captures a moment, a time, or a story like a photograph.”
The title of the exhibit, “Not an Ostrich,” reminds us to ask—“What are we really looking at?” and also suggests the whimsical quality of many photographs in the show. Other photographs, however, provoke serious reflection on different cultures and social and environmental conditions.
Renowned photography curator Anne Wilkes Tucker worked closely with Library of Congress curators, reference librarians, catalogers, and digitization specialists for several years to identify engaging, surprising, and beautiful images. The resulting selections combine such Library icons as “Migrant Mother” and the earliest known photographic portrait made in the United States with new discoveries. More than one million pictures were online before this project began. But, with 15 million photographs in the collection typically described in groups of related images, the individual pictures can often feel uncataloged and unfindable. Browsing among the files and soliciting staff suggestions revealed many fascinating images to include in the exhibition.
It’s always a good idea to Ask A Librarian!
The exhibit includes a daguerreotype that dates all the way back to 1839, recently created digital photography, and everything in between, thus telling the history of photography in the United States as well as revealing dramatic moments in personal lives. The thematic sections highlight strengths of the collections: the Arts, Leisure, Sports, Built Environment, Business & Science, Civil Action, Daily Life, and Portraits. Selections from the Detroit Publishing Company, the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, and the Camilo J. Vergara Archive provide insight into changes in urban and rural America over time. A special section features photographers in action.
A documentary movie made by the Annenberg Foundation will also be available. It includes interviews with several photographers, plus behind-the-scene views at the Library. Museumgoers on the West Coast can enjoy the exhibit in person from April 21 to September 9, 2018. Displaying primarily on large screens where the images change, the exhibit offers a chance to experience an eye-catching array of more than 400 pictures.
Learn More:
- View photos digitized for the “Not an Ostrich” exhibit, including the many free to use and re-use photographs.
- Explore featured content and events for the exhibition at the Annenberg Space for Photography.
- Read an interview between Anne Tucker and Jim Estrin in the Lens blog, New York Times, April 13, 2018 “The Power of Pictures: Viewing History Through America’s Library.”
- Have a look at the Library’s press release about the exhibition.
Comments (14)
Thank you, Beverly Brannan, for this post. These photos evoke so many memories–one in particular. An elderly friend asked me to pick up a prescription for her in a Chinese Pharmacy on Grant Street in San Francisco’s Chinatown. She lived in China during World War II to be near her husband, who was an Admiral in the British Navy. She probably saw lots of Chinese pharmacies, but I had never seen anything like the store I visited that day. Your Chinese Pharmacy on Los Angeles brought back a pleasant memory.
Thank you so much for highlighting how much of the content in American’s Library is free for people to use and re-use. This was a fun blog post to read and I’m once again lost in the digital archives.
Seeing the piece on CBS Sunday Morning today. Will this show be presented at any other space in the ?
Please send locations and dates when Not An Ostrich is available to the public.
Would LOVE to see this wonderful pictorial museum be on TOUR throughout America!! I believe it would truly help us SEE what we WERE, what we ARE, and what we CAN BE, again!TOUR PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE!
Will this exhibit travel?
Will this be exhibited anywhere else?
Will this exhibit travel elsewhere? Is there a schedule for this that can be shared? Thank you!
We’re so glad the recent coverage excited so much interest! The “Not an Ostrich” exhibition is scheduled to close on Sept. 9 at the Annenberg Space for Photography. The hours and other details for the exhibition can be found on the Annenberg Space for Photography site.
Currently, there are no plans for the exhibition to travel. But you can see all the photos that are in the show by viewing the results of this online search.
Some of the images show only as thumbnails outside of Library of Congress buildings because of rights considerations, but you can enjoy the details of the many rights-free images by viewing this “free to use” set selected from the show or by viewing this search result.
Will this exhibit be. In Nothren California? Thank you
Will this exhibit be coming to Chicago? Or anywhere near Chicago? I would love to see it.
Will this exhibit travel? I would love to see it but only found out about it on the Sunday CBS show.
Could we be so lucky that it may come to Florida?
This exhibition looks amazing. I too first learned about it on a recent “CBS Sunday Morning” show . I so hope it travels to San Diego. And Beverly Brannan, so great to learn you were a part of this!
I was excited to know that this exhibition was on. Today I finally had a chance to see it — and I was terribly disappointed. There are few, if any, traditional photographic prints to be seen. Instead, there are video screens cycling through images — with each enjoying just a few brief seconds of screen time — and there are poster-sized enlargements of some photos. Most of the space of the gallery is devoted to chairs for an audience to watch video about the LOC and the photographers — while the areas with the actual stills are small and cramped. There’s little chance to find a photo that you want to study and to spend time with it, as one would in a museum show, especially with the crowds the exhibit has drawn. If there were a catalog, I would have happily bought it in order to see the photos on paper and at leisure — but there is no catalog. I’m sorry that the curators chose to go the multimedia route. In this case, it was the wrong way to go.