Movements around civil rights, the Vietnam War, the equal rights amendment, college student protests, LGBTQIA activism, and migrant worker rights influenced artists and their work, as seen in “The ’70s Lens: Reimagining Documentary Photography,” an expansive exhibition until April 6 at the National Gallery of Art.
Entering the scene in the 1970s, these photographs are an “in your face” view of how people wanted to be seen. Photographers and their subjects embraced the freedom that was felt, but the era was not just about protests. There was the emergence of disco, afros, mini skirts, marijuana, and a counterculture where almost anything goes.
“What do I mean by documentary? All photographs are documents, right?” said Mark Levitch, researcher and writer for the Gallery’s departments of photographs, education, and modern art, considering the title of the exhibit. “They all report memories and tell stories. What is before the lens has been a parcel of what photography is since its invention in 1839.”
Photography has been used for centuries to document history.
During the 1970s, photographers captured radical neighborhood shifts depicted in group and individual portraits.
Spread across seven sections in the National Gallery, a few photographers in “The 70’s Lens” include Mikki Ferrill, and Frank Espada, photographers who used the camera to create complex portraits of their communities.
Ferrill is a Black Chicago-based photojournalist featured in Ebony, Downbeat, and the Chicago Defender.
Espada, who died in 2014, was a Puerto Rican New Yorker (Nuyorican). A photojournalist who took pictures of people of his culture in various scenarios, Espada was also an activist, educator and community organizer.
“Frank Espada had a Puerto Rican diaspora project for which he received funding to go around the country to document his culture,” said Levitch.
Other standout photographers featured in “The 70’s Lens” were Tseng Kwong Chi and Susan Hiller, who demonstrated photography’s role in developing performance and conceptual art.
Showing suburban sprawl is viewed by artists like Lewis Baltz and Joe Deal, who challenged popular ideas of nature as pristine.
Michael Jang and Joanne Leonard showed spaces that examined the social landscapes of domestic spaces.
Getting through “The 70s Lens” will take some time, but the Gallery has made the viewing process easy with several online tools. “12 Documentary Photographers Who Changed the Way We See the World” is a feature to review from one’s smartphone or desk.
Further, explore the work of featured artist Anthony Hernandez through a YouTube video conversation.
In examining how these photographers document work, The ’70s Lens: Reimagining Documentary Photography,” makes audiences evaluate the notion of taking photos.
New York photographer Anthony Barboza, summed up his work emphasizing that photography is a reflection of more than the subject.
“When you take a photograph of someone, you are taking a photograph of you as well. It’s like a mirror,” Barboza said. “You are feeling them, and they are feeling you.”
“The ’70s Lens: Reimagining Documentary Photography” is on view seven days a week for free until April 6 at the National Gallery of Art West Building at 6th Street and Constitution Avenue.
