A Maritime Album 100 Photographs and Their Stories

A Maritime Album 100 Photographs and Their Stories

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Spanning the history of photography and man’s evolving relationship with the sea, A Maritime Albumprovides a rare, revealing view of American maritime culture, industry and society, capturing notable moments in the 19th and early 20th centuries.  The vintage photographs that comprise this exhibition depict the complex, often deeply passionate relationships of mariners with their vessels and the sea, providing insight into our history as explorers and adventurers in this vast and unpredictable world.  The exhibition showcases 100 black and white photographs of the fishing, sailing, and whaling traditions off international shores as well as naval encounters, shipbuilding ventures and intimate views of daily maritime life.

Photography was invented in 1839 during an age of optimism and growth in the United States. Geographic expansion and rapid industrial development showed a vigorous society on its onward march, and the camera was tailor-made to reflect the accomplishments of the era.  Nowhere is this more vividly illustrated than in photographers’ documentation of maritime themes. The surviving photographic record, as presented in this exhibition, is powerful testimony to the ways in which the sea has permeated every aspect of national life, from the grand spectacle of naval fleet reviews to the lone fisherman adrift at sea.

A Maritime Album is organized by The Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, Virginia.  The images were selected by photographic historian John Szarkowski, retired Curator of Photography of New York’s Museum of Modern Art, and are accompanied with text by Richard Benson, Dean of the Art School at Yale University.