User:Mpower2/sandbox/Washington DC fine-art Photography, 1967-2000

Washington DC Fine-art Photography, 1967-2000.

= Context =

By the end of 1960s, art photography was in the doldrums, not only in Washington but throughout the United States. Between Los Angeles and New York there were only two or three small galleries showing photography ( one in Manhattan was aptly named the "Underground Gallery")and it was rare that contemporary photography was being seen in museums. Equally rare were the collectors of fine art photography, and there were only one or two universities in the entire country offering programs in photography.

Art photography in 1968 Washington was also an underground activity with few institutions offering support. The major universities and colleges didn't have programs, there were no galleries showing photography, and museums rarely showed photographic work.

The late 60s was a volatile time; the assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968 had sparked riots in our nation's capital, and when photographer Mark L. Power arrived in the city only weeks later he remembers seeing "a column of smoke rising behind the White House". Murder was in the air in Washington, in Memphis, in Chicago, in Los Angeles and only a few years earlier in Dallas.

It seemed like revolutions of all kinds were detonating daily and looking back on those days it was evident that a revolution was in the air for Washington photography also.

In retrospect,  although the coincidences and the circumstances were  extraordinary, nothing was planned: people and events seemed to flow together as if some subliminal signal was in the air, signaling  everyone the time was ripe for change.