UpDate - Vol. 14, No. 23, Page 4
March 9, 1995
Symposium focuses on photo as social document

     The American Photograph as Social and Cultural Document" is the
theme of the annual Delaware Symposium on American Art, scheduled from
8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Friday, March 31, in Clayton Hall.
     Sponsored by the Department of Art History, the symposium will
focus on the ways American photographers have used the camera to
record and comment on the country's culture. Speakers will interpret
photographic images from a variety of perspectives and examine
photography's social and cultural contexts. They also will explore
historical patterns in American photography from its 19th-century
origins to the present.
     Speakers include James Curtis, professor of history and director
of the Winterthur Program in Early American Culture at the University.
     Curtis is considered an expert in the photography of the Farm
Security Administration, a federal agency created by Roosevelt in 1935
to provide information on the conditions in agricultural America in
the South and California. He is the author of the book Mind's Eye,
Mind's Truth: FSA Photography Reconsidered.
     "We hope the symposium will present to the public the full range
of scholarship on photography and let people know the kinds of
approaches people take and the uses they make of photos themselves. We
want the public to know about the culture and the social history of
the times in which various photos were produced," Curtis said.
     "We also want to address photography as an important aspect of
our history," he said. "There is great strength in American
photography. It is a very precious historical source used as a primary
form of evidence. The symposium will examine photography as a
statement of reality and as the product of an artistic temperment."
     Morning speakers include Miles Orvell, professor of English and
American studies at Temple University, who will provide an
introduction; Merry A. Foresta, senior curator at the National Museum
of American Art, who will speak on "Freedom Framed: Picturing the
Abolitionists in American Daguerreotypy"; Keith Davis, fine arts
program director for Hallmark Cards, who will speak on "Understanding
Photographs of the American Civil War"; Thomas Southall, curator of
photographs at the Amon Carter Museum, who will speak on "John
Hillers' Photographs of Native Americans"; and Melinda Parsons,
associate professor of art history at Memphis State University, who
will speak on "Edward Steichen and Socialism."
     Afternoon speakers include Judith Keller, associate curator in
the Department of Photographs at the J. Paul Getty Museum, who will
speak on "Walker Evans' Cuban Photographs"; William Williams,
professor of fine arts at Haverford College, who will speak on the
"The Invisibility of African Americans in Walker Evans' 'American
Photographs'"; David Peeler, associate professor of American history
at the U.S. Naval Academy, who will speak on "Paul Strand's Imagery
and the Cold War"; and Carol Squiers, senior editor at American
Photography, who will speak on "Bodies and Soul: The Human Form in
Contemporary Photography."
     The symposium concludes with a visit to "Appeal to This Age:
Photography of the Civil Rights Movement, 1954-1968," which is on view
at the University Gallery on the campus through April 10.
     The Delaware Symposium on American Art is the oldest permanent
forum for the presentation of new research in the history of art of
the United States.
     Since its establishment in 1972, the symposium has provided a
meeting place for professors, students, museum professionals, art
collectors and dealers and interested members of the general public.
The day's schedule is arranged to encourage informal exchange among
speakers and all who attend.
     Registration fee, which includes a buffet luncheon and gallery
reception, is $35 per person and $15 for students. For registration
information, contact Carolle M. Seifred at 831-2216 (voice); 831-4552
(TDD) or 831-2298 (fax). For program information, call the UD
Department of Art History, at 831-8415 (voice) or 831-8243 (fax).
     In addition to the Department of Art History, the symposium is
supported by the College of Arts and Science, the Winterthur Program
in Early American Culture, the University Gallery, the University
Faculty Senate, the Clayton Hall Conference Center, the Minority
Scholars Fund, the Visiting Women Scholars Fund, Keith de Lellis Fine
Art Photography, Paul M. Hertzmann Inc., Charles Isaacs Photographs,
Lunn Ltd., Ezra Mack, Vivian O. and Meyer P. Potamkin Foundation, the
Weston Gallery, the Pace/MacGill Gallery and the Zabriskie Gallery
                                                          -Beth Thomas