American photographers Dorothea Lange, Gordon Parks, and Latoya Ruby Frazier turned their cameras on individuals and communities whose stories were less known to expose their daily trials, struggles, and celebrations…. Read More
The Bella Coola Peoples of Canada’s Pacific Northwest, also known as the Nuxalk are renowned as carvers, with a mask-making tradition that includes physical representations of supernatural beings with animal-like features of species common to the tribe’s home region, including owls, killer whales, ravens, and wolves. This headdress in NOMA’s Native American art collection depicts an predatory bird. Read More
With a body like a polished stone and a handle reminiscent of indigenous Mexican animal figures, a recently acquired teapot seems to be of both nature and man, both ancient and modern. This elegant 1941 teapot by the prominent African American Modernist sculptor Sargent Claude Johnson is an extraordinary new addition to NOMA’s decorative arts collection. Read More
As NOMA considers the various aspects of sustainability this week, this three-picture story looks at an unsustainable resource and practice: coal and its extraction. As an unrenewable fossil fuel that… Read More
Berenice Abbott began her Changing New York project in 1929, an effort to document the city’s transformation as New York entered a new period of demolition and redevelopment. Read More
The following essay was written by Nic Aziz, NOMA’s Community Engagement Curator. Land is arguably the most sought-after resource on our planet. It has been the source of everything… Read More
John Moyer Heathcote was an amateur painter and photographer in Norfolk, England, where he likely took this photograph of a windmill. Heathcote documented architecture and rural scenes, compiling photographs in… Read More
Joseph Cornell loved to visit New York and collect items he found on the streets and in secondhand stores and bookstores. He built quite a collection and created his own… Read More
NOMA’s Learning and Engagement staff suggests a range books for all ages related to themes of sustainability. In partnership with Octavia Books, links are provided to purchase these titles through this independent bookstore based in New Orleans. Read More
Mandala comes from the classical Indian language Sanskrit. Loosely translated, the word means circle, but a mandala has symbolic meaning as well. The shape of a mandala is circular and… Read More
NOMA’s Learning and Engagement staff suggests the following books related to themes of belief systems. In partnership with Octavia Books, links are provided to purchase these titles through this independent… Read More
As a captain in the East India Company army, Linnaeus Tripe produced some of the earliest photographs of India and Burma in the 1850s. Many of his photographs were ultimately set into a series of lavish bound albums that comprised a visual survey of these locations. Read More
Karl Struss was an active member of the pictorialist photography community, which favored soft, dark, and carefully crafted prints. The Faith Healer is a kind of film still on the set of the 1921 silent movie, now lost. Read More
A visitor to the shrine at Lourdes could purchase a photograph as a souvenir, or such images could order one from a photographer’s catalog without ever making the pilgrimage. For a person of faith, viewing this photograph in an album or on the mantle could call up feelings of hope and reverence across time and space. Read More
In 1935, Roman Vishniac was hired by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, a leading humanitarian assistance organization, to photograph Jewish communities throughout Eastern Europe. Over the next few… Read More
A group of Muslim women pray on Hari Parbat in photograph by Henri Cartier-Bresson. In this arrested the moment, a woman’s rgesture of prayer ooks as if she is releasing the distant clouds into the air like doves. Read More
Throughout his career, Ansel Adams was always interested in gravestones. Beginning in the 1930s and continuing through the 1960s, Adams photographed old carved headstones in cemeteries from California to New England. He viewed these markers as “profoundly human.” Read More
Between World Wars I and II, James Van Der Zee was one of the most popular photographers in Harlem, New York. Known primarily for his portraits, Van Der Zee also worked for a wide range of clients outside of his studio, including a variety of Harlem’s diverse faith communities. Read More