During the Civil War, Timothy O’Sullivan made a name for himself photographing army camp life and Eastern landscapes destroyed by cataclysmic battles. In 1871 O’Sullivan enlisted in the U.S. Corps of Engineers for a series of expeditions to map the lands west of the 100th meridian, commonly referred to as the Wheeler Survey (after leader… Read More
Sometime in the 1830s, a young John Ruskin walked into a cave with a box of paper, pencils and paint. Ruskin stationed himself near the mouth of the cave but at an oblique angle so that he could observe the shifting effects of light as it entered the cave. Working quickly, Ruskin sketched out… Read More
During a week when NOMA’s team looks toward our permanent collection for examples of plant life and floral beauty, it may seem strange to focus on the humble cabbage. Carlotta Corpron’s Nature Dancer, however, elevates leaves of Chinese cabbage out of the kitchen and into our imaginations. The sense of motion is incredible, and at… Read More
In the late 1970s, Richard Misrach produced a group of photographs in Louisiana that made dramatic use of long exposures and stroboscopic lighting. Here, the intermittent blasts of light on the row of cypress trees obliterate the detail of the trunks and transform a set of rough, textured surfaces into a group of smooth vertical… Read More
“I say everyone on earth should take note of the spring, coming back every year, blooming and gorgeous.” —Alma W. Thomas In Alma Thomas’s painting Dogwood Display II, a rainbow of color ripples beneath streaks of white paint, recalling the bursting blossoms of a dogwood tree, or white clouds shimmering in the sky on a… Read More