Aaron Siskind: Mid Century Modern

Hardcover | 28.5 x 2.5 x 28.5 cm | 174 pp

Museum of Photographic Arts | 2022 | 9781878062116

Aaron Siskind: Mid Century Modern is a deep look at a specific period in the nearly 60-year career of one of American’s most important and influential photographers. During the two decades that bracket the middle of the twentieth century, Siskind thoughtfully, deliberately, and passionately examined himself as an artist and in so doing produced images that carved a new place for photography as art. 

Both an artist and an educator, Siskind was instrumental in redefining postwar photography in the United States. From his early documentary work of the human condition in the 1930s to his focus on abstraction in the 40s and 50s, he influenced a generation of photographers and painters. At a time when photography was gaining
understanding and appreciation as a fine art, Siskind was a key figure in demonstrating that the medium could be a powerful means of creativity. His exploration of abstraction was new and innovative. “As the language or vocabulary of photography has been extended,” Siskind wrote, “the emphasis of meaning has shifted, shifted from what the world looks like to what we feel about the world and what we want the world to mean.”

By capturing what he found in front of the camera, he transformed what could be perceived as mundane – scarred walls, graffiti, and detritus-into something, “that you never dreamed of before.” Not only were Siskind’s images a new way of looking at the details often unseen, but his presentation was also modern and established a visual vocabulary still in use today.