Barbara Morgan
Barbara Brooks Morgan, born in 1900, is an American treasure who is well known in the visual art and dance worlds for her penetrating photographic studies of American Modern dancers such as Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, and José Limón.In her series of dance photographs, Morgan captured the essence of modern dance and created timeless documents that are, at the same time, brilliant artistic images in two-dimension. Morgan was equally adept at portraiture as well as manipulating disparate elements into new multi-layered images, or photomontage. Her photomontage and light drawings push the art of photography beyond that of simply a tool that records a scene or event. Her abstract montage works demonstrate Morgan's grasp of the scientific properties of the medium and her ability to stretch the limits of photography to create exciting, kinetic imagery.
Barbara Morgan trained as a painter at the University of California in Los Angeles. Upon seeing an exhibit by Edward Weston, she became attracted to photography as an art form. In 1935, as her family responsibilities grew, leaving her less time for painting, photography became her principal medium. She spent the next five years in the studio photographing Martha Graham's dance company. Morgan's book of those images received the American Institute of Graphic Arts Trade Book Clinic Award. Photographing her subjects in only black and white, many of her best known images are portraits of dancers, children, and montages. Among the dancers she has photographed are Jose Limon, Erick Hawkins, Anna Sokolow and Merce Cunningham.
Though Morgan's drawings, prints, watercolors and paintings were widely exhibited in the 1920s and 1930s, she turned to photography in 1935 to allow more time in raising her children. As an artist, Morgan immediately distanced herself from "pure photography" and began experimenting. With her camera, she explored the photographic medium through a wide range of methods such as montage, double exposure and extended time exposure. The resulting black-and-white prints Morgan produced in the 1930s and 1940s rank among the classic experiments of Modern American photographic art.
Morgan's photographs fall into two important areas in the history of photography: Expressionist and manipulated image photography. Photographic meaning for expressionist photography extends beyond the photograph and becomes a symbol expressing personal vision and cultural values. Thus photography from an Expressionist's point of view is not essentially a vehicle for documentation, but aims at interpretation of its subject. Images in photography formed from this perspective are often metaphorical. Expressionists such as Morgan argue for a separation of the medium as a fine art from its functional and casual "snapshot" tradition.
The second main axis running through Morgan's photographs is her experimental uses of manipulated or altered images created using montage, double exposure and time exposure techniques. Manipulating photographic images was important to Morgan because it freed her from any fears that a photograph is a mere record, or copy. An exploration of the relationship of the camera to other visual arts media, such as dance, and subjective transformation of the materials being photographed is the essential part of creating the unique images of Barbara Morgan.
“Every photographer has his own methods of personal expression. My way is to allow the unconscious to do a large share of the work. First, I watch rehearsals and performances in complete detachment... without trying to plan pictures. Next I let these impressions “soak in” over as long a period as possible...I like to photograph only when I have had time to digest the subject and assimilate it with all I know and feel.”
Morgan’s 70-year career includes her involvement as a founding member of Aperture and the publication of several photography books including “Martha Graham: Sixteen Dances in Photographs,” and “Summer’s Children: A Photographic Cycle of Life at Camp.”
Resources
Patnaik, Deba P. “Barbara Morgan: Masters of Photography.” Aperture
Morgan, Barbara. “Photographing the Dance.” New York: Morgan & Lester: Graphic Graflex Photography, 1947.
Mitchell, Margaretta K. “Recollections: Ten Women in Photography.” New York: Viking Press, 1979.
