EYE CONTACT: A potpourri of portraiture from the permanent collection

Not every subject in these portraits is looking directly at the photographer, but all are aware that the camera is looking at them. In that sense, all are formal portraits, as opposed to candid ones whose subjects are unaware that their picture is being taken.

The portraits seen in this exhibition span the history of photography from its invention in the 19th century to the last quarter of the 20th century, and they exemplify three periods or phases in the development of the formal photographic portrait. The original ideal of such portraiture in the 19th century was to dignify subjects whether they were public figures like politicians and actors or ordinary citizens. In the early 20th century, the goal became glamour rather than dignity; stars of stage and screen were the models whom other subjects tended to emulate. And in the period after World War II, the aesthetic shifted again to a more adversarial kind of portrait in which photographers and subjectsówhoever they might beóeyed one another with a certain wariness.

Photo: Dalton & Lucy: Charles Darwin