Cruel and Tender: Realism and Photography in the Twentieth Century

‘Tender cruelty’ is how the writer Lincoln Kirstein described the work of American photographer Walker Evans in the 1930s. Evans’s images were spare and factual, but his interest in the subject matter was always evident. Evans, along with German photographer August Sander, provides the historical axes for this exhibition, which explores the realist tradition within twentieth-century photography. The photographers chosen are united by this sense of ‘tender cruelty’, an oscillation between engagement and estrangement in their work. The result is a type of photographic realism that avoids nostalgia, romanticism, or sentimentality in favour of clear-eyed observation.

Exhibiting at:

• Tate Modern (5 June - 7 September 2003)
• Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany (29 November 2003 - March 2004)

A collaboration with Tate Modern and the Museum Ludwig, Cologne