Sharp focus

A combination of institutions and artists is posthumously honoring one of the country’s leading advocates of fine art photography.

The effort culminates in the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s "Glorious Harvest: Photography from the Michael E. Hoffman Tribute Collection," running through Oct. 3.

The show comprises more than 90 photographs donated by artists and, in some cases, their estates, to honor Hoffman, who spent 30 years as an adjunct curator at the museum, and who was the executive director of the Aperture Foundation from 1965 until his death in 2001 at age 59. Among his accomplishments in Philadelphia was founding the Alfred Stieglitz Center within the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The show has been installed in the Berman and Stieglitz galleries at the museum.

The Aperture Foundation was founded in the early 1950s by a group that convened in Ansel Adams’ home. The members wanted to foster an appreciation of photography and promote it as a serious art form. In addition to Adams, founders included Minor White, Dorothea Lange, Barbara Morgan and Nancy Newhall. Hoffman began as a student and assistant to White, whose views included that photography could be a "tool of spiritual enlightenment."

The major function of the group was the publishing of Aperture, a magazine that over the years has maintained its high standards of quality as a venue for photography and has won national awards for technical excellence.

The list of photographers included in the collection is a veritable who’s who: Henri Cartier-Bresson, Flor Garduno, Eikoh Hosoe, William Christenberry, Irving Penn, Ray Metzker, Bruce Davidson, Ralph Gibson, Robert Capa, Robert Mapplethorpe, the Starn twins, Lynn Davis, Sally Mann, Donna Ferrato, the duo of Nicholas Kahn and Richard Solesnick, Richard Misrach, Jeff Bridges, Robert Adams, Mary Ellen Mark and mentor White.

According to Katherine Ware, the museum’s photography curator, "Many of the pictures chosen for the collection were favorites of Michael Hoffman’s or were selected by the artist with his tastes and interests in mind … All of these wide-ranging and evocative photographs significantly enhance the museum’s collection."

As is the usual practice with the Aperture Foundation, a book has been published, Outside the Ordinary: A Tribute in Pictures, which will serve as the show’s catalog. During his tenure with Aperture, Hoffman oversaw the production of 300 books, including influential monographs of work by Diane Arbus, Edward Weston, W. Eugene Smith and Lange. Thus, a pattern began through which an Aperture article would lead to major traveling exhibition and full-blown books.

At the Art Museum, for example, Hoffman was responsible for major exhibitions on the Mexican photographer Garciela Iturbide and, most recently, Mark. "His fascination with the people and culture of India, so richly displayed in the major 1997 exhibition, ‘India: A Celebration of Independence,’ is evident in one group of images [in the show]," Ware noted.

Hoffman grew up in New York City, a child of urban streets, yet he spent his summers in Montana, where he worked as a rodeo rider. He was the steward of the late Paul Strand’s estate, arranging exhibitions and publications, yet he was also an organic gardener. Hoffman initially managed the business end of Aperture, which was deeply in debt when he took over, yet he kept the artistic quality high.

One of the fascinations with this show is the color found in the black and white images. There are pearly whites, silvers and grays, black velvets, and images sharpened as though viewed through a glass of white vinegar. The textures are almost overwhelming to the subject matter of the print, thus a black and white picture of a group of Indians celebrating independence becomes a testament to the variety of peoples of the subcontinent that no color photography could hope to capture. And then again, it is mostly the nuances of all of the work that stand out and captures the viewer’s gaze and thoughts.

If there is only one photography show in your near future, this is the one to see.

Glorious Harvest: Photography from the Michael E. Hoffman Tribute Collection
Through Oct. 3
Philadelphia Museum of Art
26th Street and Benjamin Franklin Parkway
215-684-7500
www.philamuseum.org
Adults, $10; seniors (62+), $7; students with valid ID, $7; ages 13-18, $7; 12 and under, free; Sundays, pay what you wish