Il languorino

Una digressione sul rapporto tra testo e immagine: dal segno al linguaggio, l’influenza di Atget su Evans, di Evans su Frank, dal modernismo anti-narrativo fino al manifestarsi della scrittura nell’immagine. Gli autori ripercorrono alcuni loro lavori fototestuali. Keywords: Eugène Atget, Walker Evans, Berenice Abbott, modernismo, Robert Frank, Jean-Luc Godard, Jim Dine, testo-immagine.

Collecting locally : Walker Evans's photographs of Alabama in Alabama institutions

Within the United States, the American South can be perceived as its own entity. From the arts to Southern cuisine, the South commands attention with its own history, myths and culture. Within the history of photography, Walker Evans's photographs of Alabama are arguably some of the most culturally significant images taken of the state and its residents. This thesis investigates how photographs of Alabama are collected in the same locality. By examining the collecting practices of four Alabama institutions in regards to photographs in general, and Walker Evans specifically, this case study will expand on the question of how photographs, in a Southern cultural context, work to create a sense of place and attachment to local geography.

Collecting locally : Walker Evans's photographs of Alabama in Alabama institutions

Within the United States, the American South can be perceived as its own entity. From the arts to Southern cuisine, the South commands attention with its own history, myths and culture. Within the history of photography, Walker Evans's photographs of Alabama are arguably some of the most culturally significant images taken of the state and its residents. This thesis investigates how photographs of Alabama are collected in the same locality. By examining the collecting practices of four Alabama institutions in regards to photographs in general, and Walker Evans specifically, this case study will expand on the question of how photographs, in a Southern cultural context, work to create a sense of place and attachment to local geography.

Lincoln Kirstein: An American Influence: The Photographs of Walker Evans & Henri Cartier-Bresson at the New York City Ballet

This thesis explores the work of Walker Evans (1903–1975) and Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908– 2004) in relation to the New York City Ballet (NYCB) and its co-founder, Lincoln Kirstein (1907–1996). Kirstein, a respected author and critic, supported numerous creative mediums, artists, and photographers. However, despite his friendship and sponsorship of Evans and Cartier-Bresson, their photographs of Kirstein’s dance company have remained relatively unknown. This lacuna invites a reexamination of their work at the NYCB, with an emphasis on Kirstein’s influential relationship with each photographer. In addition to supplementing scholarship on Evans and Cartier-Bresson, this thesis is accompanied by an illustrated catalogue containing all known images related to the NYCB by both photographers, reproducing the majority of this work for the first time. This thesis thus aims to produce a significant contribution to not only our knowledge of Evans and Cartier-Bresson’s oeuvres, but also twentieth-century American art and culture.

Lincoln Kirstein: An American Influence: The Photographs of Walker Evans & Henri Cartier-Bresson at the New York City Ballet

This thesis explores the work of Walker Evans (1903–1975) and Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908– 2004) in relation to the New York City Ballet (NYCB) and its co-founder, Lincoln Kirstein (1907–1996). Kirstein, a respected author and critic, supported numerous creative mediums, artists, and photographers. However, despite his friendship and sponsorship of Evans and Cartier-Bresson, their photographs of Kirstein’s dance company have remained relatively unknown. This lacuna invites a reexamination of their work at the NYCB, with an emphasis on Kirstein’s influential relationship with each photographer. In addition to supplementing scholarship on Evans and Cartier-Bresson, this thesis is accompanied by an illustrated catalogue containing all known images related to the NYCB by both photographers, reproducing the majority of this work for the first time. This thesis thus aims to produce a significant contribution to not only our knowledge of Evans and Cartier-Bresson’s oeuvres, but also twentieth-century American art and culture.

Dalí’s Montaigne

This chapter analyses the hybridization of the essay with visual genres such as illustration, photography, film, and video, an emergent tendency throughout the twentieth century that underscores the shared features of essayism and Surrealism. These include the use of a logic of digression and free association, a focus on the inner life of the self, the dismissal of formal strictures, the deployment of sensory perception, memory, intuition, and imagination towards expressive ends, and the reliance on images. Beginning with Salvador Dalí’s illustrations for Montaigne’s Essays (1947), the chapter then turns to James Agee and Walker Evans’ collaborative photo essay Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (1941), Chris Marker’s essay-film Sans soleil (1982), and John Bresland’s video essay Mangoes (2010) in order to pinpoint the shared affinities between essayism and Surrealism.