photography

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Image features leather covered folding camera with front panel enameled in red, brown and tan geometric pattern. Rectangular black-lacquerd cedar box with same geometric design as on camera holds the folded camera. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
Camera in a Box
Walter Dorwin Teague was a well-established industrial designer by 1928, when the Eastman Kodak Company, engaged him to modernize their line of cameras. Kodak sought Teague based on recommendations by curators from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Having no prior experience in camera design, Teague undertook the assignment after Kodak agreed that he could spend...
Read Time
2 minutes
Posted By
Cynthia Trope
Date
October 28, 2019
Image features camera of rectangular form, the housing of red anodized aluminum, one end with a recessed circular lens surrounded by black plastic with small “Lytro” logo, the other end, covered in textured black silicone rubber, with an LCD touchscreen. Recessed shutter release button and controls on top of camera; USB port and power button on bottom; lanyard hole on side. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
Refocus
In celebration of the milestone 20th anniversary of the National Design Awards, this week’s Object of The Day posts honor National Design Award winners. A version of this post was originally published on October 1, 2014. Throughout the history of photography, advances in technology—from daguerreotype to digital photography—have continued to propel the field forward. Recently, the...
Read Time
2 minutes
Posted By
Andrea Lipps
Date
October 16, 2019
Image features the poster for "Day Without Art" to honor artists who died of AIDS. Reproduction of ink and paper drawing of Darrel Ellis' "Self Portrait" at top half. Image of African-American young man with hands clasped in front. Across top, "We're all one human being,/really./ - Darrell Ellis (died of AIDS in 1992)/ (Source: Interview with David Hirsh)" (in red). Written biography of Ellis and information about this day such as date, purpose, and sponsors below in red. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
Darrel Ellis: Human Touch
In celebration of World Pride, June Object of the Day posts highlight LGBTQ+ designers and design in the collection. This poster, published by Visual AIDS in 1994, features a painting by Darrel Ellis (1958–1992), an African-American artist who created photographs, paintings, and mixed media sculptures. Many of his paintings are based on photographs, including family...
Read Time
5 minutes
Posted By
Ellen Lupton
Date
June 27, 2019
Image features a rectangular textile with a pattern in brown, rose, and blush. Against a rose background, a series of photographs are silkscreened overlapping each other and at an array of angles. The photographs are of children and street scenes in Cambodia. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
Photographic Assemblage
In celebration of World Pride, June Object of the Day posts highlight LGBTQ+ designers and design in the collection. Clark Robertson moved to New York City, from Texas, in the late 1970s to establish a design and printing business, at which he started producing printed textiles for fashion and interior design use. A design titled...
Read Time
3 minutes
Posted By
Matthew Kennedy
Date
June 26, 2019
Image features a sepia-tinted photograph of a woman in a long gown standing before a mirrored wall in an elaborate room, a gilded and upholstered side chair to her left and armchair to her right. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
A Living Factory of Chic
In celebration of World Pride, June Object of the Day posts highlight LGBTQ+ designers and design in the collection. A woman of nearly seventy-five, dressed in a voluminous white gown with contrasting shawl, gazes over a well-appointed interior in a photograph by a thirty-five-year-old aesthete. The woman is Elsie de Wolfe, the interior is of...
Read Time
5 minutes
Posted By
Matthew Kennedy
Date
June 19, 2019
Image features a length of fabric printed with scenes of New York City landmarks, in black on off-white. Scroll down to read the blog about this object.
A Big Apple Souvenir
Author: Leigh Wishner In celebration of the third annual New York Textile Month, members of the Textile Society of America will author Object of the Day for the month of September. A non-profit professional organization of scholars, educators, and artists in the field of textiles, TSA provides an international forum for the exchange and dissemination...
Read Time
4 minutes
Posted By
Susan Brown
Date
September 21, 2018
Instant Photography Before the Internet
When Edwin Land, co-founder of the Polaroid Corporation, introduced the SX-70 instant camera, he could have hardly predicted how forward-thinking his design truly was. The idea of instant photography, something synonymous with today’s smartphone and social media image sharing applications, was more or less an inexact science before 1972, the year that the SX-70 was...
Read Time
2 minutes
Posted By
Andrew Gardner
Date
February 23, 2018
The Gates
Pumpkin-orange! Motion! These are just a few words that come to mind to describe this collage by artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude. This bright, dynamic work presents a plan and rendering of The Gates, a public art installation that filled the winding walking paths of New York’s Central Park with 7,503 rectangular structures draped with flame-colored...
Read Time
3 minutes
Posted By
Julie Pastor
Date
November 27, 2017
Studio Snapshots
“I was in my early 20s and I could quite happily work all day and go out all night. And I always had a camera with me.” –Nick Waplington, 2016 British Photographer Nick Waplington (b. 1965) was a student of the Royal Academy of Art when he was “discovered” by renowned fashion photographer, Richard Avedon. Throughout his...
Read Time
2 minutes
Posted By
Danielle Weindling
Date
November 14, 2017