Washington, D.C.

Artist Kenneth Josephson

CultureAmerican

Date1975

MediumGelatin silver print

DimensionsOverall, Image: 7 7/8 × 12 1/16 in. (20 × 30.6 cm)
Overall: 10 1/2 × 14 in. (26.7 × 35.6 cm)
Overall, Mat: 16 × 20 1/16 in. (40.6 × 51 cm)

InscribedSigned on verso, written in pencil: 8/50 75-35-176-40 / Washington Monument, D.C. 1975 (Archeological Series, 6 inch Contour Gauge) / Kenneth Josephson

Credit LineMuseum purchase in memory of Alice R. and Sol B. Frank

Object number2001.19

Not on view

Label TextKenneth Josephson American (b. 1932) Washington, D.C., from the Archeological Series, 1975 Gelatin-silver print Purchase, in memory of Alice R. and Sol B. Frank 2001.19 ~ Kenneth Josephson was schooled in the Bauhaus tradition at the Chicago Art Institute which encouraged using photography in nontraditional ways. This led him to create experimental works with the camera. Ultimately, his work becomes more closely aligned with the conceptual artists of the same time period who were working with photography as being about ideas rather than necessarily about the subject depicted. In this image, the artist holds a contour gauge near the Washington Monument. It appears as though he has just replicated the shape of the monument on the contour gauge. Because of the way that photography compresses reality into a two-dimensional surface, it seems as though the artist has indeed reached the monument. While this thought is good for a laugh, the overall image serves as a metaphor for how photography captures the world in accurate and direct proportions, only smaller and on a piece of film. This image also calls into question the integrity of the "photographic proof." Edited By: GLY Edited Date: 11/07/2003ProvenanceChrysler Museum of Art purchase, in memory of Alice R. and Sol B. Frank, 2001. Exhibition History"History of Photography," Alice R. and Sol B. Frank Photography Galleries, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va, Fall, 2001. "Silver Images: The Photography Collection at 25," Alice R. and Sol B. Frank Photo Galleries, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., November 5, 2003 - August 2004. Published ReferencesKenneth Josephson, Sylvia Wolf, Stephanie Lipscomb, and James N. Wood, _Kenneth Josephson: A Retrospective_, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Il., 1999, 125.