Story & Photos
By Michael Kinney
Walking through the corridors of the National Gallery of Art, it can sometimes be a chore to keep focus. With 271,000 square feet and more than 140,000 items on display, it is easy to get distracted.
But I figured I was safe. During my last trip to Washington, D.C. in late March, I knew exactly where I was going.
It doesn’t matter how many times I’ve seen it, I always make time to take in The Shaw 54th Regiment Memorial on the main floor of the NGA. It’s a plaster version of Augustus Saint-Gaudens’s to one of the first African American regiments formed in the North and made famous by one of my favorite films, “Glory.”
However, this time I didn’t make it. While on my way to, my gaze caught hold of two men dressed in long white overcoats, wide-brimmed hats, scarves, wingtip oxfords and oversized sunglasses.
Whatever intentions I had before had disappeared and I was totally transfixed on the image. As I got closer, I saw it was a black and white photograph that had been blown up to beyond life-size dimensions.
It turned out to be the entrance to the ’70s Lens: Reimagining Documentary Photography exhibit.
The photograph, which belongs to Anthony Barboza and was taken on the streets of New York City in the 1970s, stood right in the middle of the doorway and you had to walk directly past the well-dressed and stylish gentlemen to gain entrance. As they peered down on me, I felt kind of ashamed in my very casual Tommy Bahama jacket and Asics walking shoes.
I quickly got over my fashion inadequacy and continued my tour through a decade of photography. Being a child of the 70s, my curiosity was piqued.
Andrea Nelson, who curated the exhibit, did a good job of highlighting photographers from all over the country and not just major metropolises like NYC and L.A. While they did have more than their fair share, the South and Midwest were represented as well.
That includes the likes of Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe, whose work from islands around South Carolina brought a human face to a region that was isolated in the 70s and somewhat still today.
Conversely, John M. Valdez, who was at the forefront of chronicling the ChicanX identity, showed life on the eclectic streets of East L.A.
Then you had the likes of William Eggleston, who was in a category all his own. The Memphis native, who believed nothing was more important or less important than the other, featured images such as a tricycle, a lightbulb set against a blood red ceiling and a used tires sign. I understood none of it and all of it at the same time.
Outside of Barboza’s NYC photo, my favorite image at the exhibit may have been John Simmon’s Will on Chevy. Taken in Nashville in 1978, it featured a young man lying on his side on the trunk of a Chevy as he flexed his left arm.
That stood out because that is exactly how I would have posed in my youth (maybe today also), knowing I had a world in front of me to go out and conquer.
I spent a couple of hours in the exhibit looking and taking photos of other exhibit-goers who were just as interested as I was. The diverse group included those who had lived through the turbulent decade and those who were too young and only knew the movies and music that came out of it.
With an idea already in my mind that I needed to write about the experience, I had forgotten about The Shaw 54th Regiment Memorial as I left through the side door of the museum.
The Shawn Walker quote, “I love that we are timekeepers; we can capture time and take it with us. That’s as profound as it gets,” had been posted at the entrance next to Barboza’s photo. The meaning began to hit as I made my way to my next stop with my camera in my hands.
Go to Luxiere Magazine to read my accompanying feature on the ’70s Lens: Reimagining Documentary Photography exhibit and how those photographers changed how we look at the world.
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