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‘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. |
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Besides sharing a realist style, the photographers
in Cruel and Tender take a similar approach to their subject
matter, however diverse its nature. Rather than the dramatised scenarios
of some types of photo-journalism, the tendency in Cruel and
Tender is towards the quiet documentation of overlooked aspects
of our world, whether architecture, objects, places or people. In
the words of Philip-Lorca diCorcia, it
is an ambition to record ‘that which was never really hidden,
but rarely is noticed.’
Rather than being arranged chronologically, the exhibition
begins and ends with living photographers, while encouraging interconnections
between the historical and the contemporary. Works are grouped into
sympathetic clusters, allowing comparisons and juxtapositions. Some
of the themes linking these bodies of work are explored on this
site, under artists.
Though photography has been included in a number of
previous exhibitions at Tate, and regularly features in its Collections
displays, this is the first major exhibition dedicated purely to
the medium. As such, it signals Tate’s acknowledgement that
photography is a key component of contemporary visual culture and
now regularly features in the programme of the museum.
An exhibition by Tate Modern, London and Museum
Ludwig, Koln, curated by Emma Dexter and Thomas Weski
Sponsored by:
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