Exhibition Opening: African American Portraits 1900-1920

Community Life: African American Portraits from the Burns Archive 1900-1920

and

Ming Smith: Film Noir  

Feb 1- February 12, 2012

Reception Thursday February 2, 6-8pm

 This exhibition is free and open to the public.

The National Arts Club

15 Gramercy Park South, New York, NY 10003

In honor of African American History month The National Arts Club Photography Committee will be presenting a two-part exhibition. A group of photographs by contemporary photographer Ming Smith and a series of historic images from Dr. Stanley B Burns’ collection will be on view. Burns’ images  document community life as well as portraits from the first two decades of the twentieth century. These images supplement the traveling exhibition currently on display at the New York State Museum in Albany: Shadows & Substance: African American Photographs from the Burns Collection and Archive. Since 1979 Dr. Burns’ pioneering exhibitions of African American photography have documented the proud middle and working classes that have so long been absent from visual and written history of the early twentieth century.

Ming Smith lives in Harlem and has traveled the world with her camera. Her journey is “emotionally packed” as Gordon Parks remarks, in his introduction to Ming’s book. From her Ohio childhood to the large cities of America, Europe, Africa and Asia she “continually taps the intuitive and renders it in a form that is coherent and accessible” (Susan Kismaric, MOMA, Ming- A Ming Breakfast, Preface 1991). Her series encompasses topics including jazz, the black experience, Harlem, Native America, Africa and Paris. Ming Smith’s photography belongs to a tradition that adheres to the belief that the photograph is grounded in the artist’s experience of the world.

A sample of The Burns Collection images to be featured:

If interested in historical African American photographs you may enjoy in these posts as well:

New York State Museum Exhibits Historic African American Photos from The Burns Archive

Rare African American Photographs from the Ken Ogden Holdings Added to  Collection

Pharmacy Collection Photographs from The Burns Archive

Pharmacy, c. 1870s

Apothecary and General Store, c. 1870s

Interior of Helmbold's Drug Store, New York City,  Stereo-view, c .1870s

Dr. Carney's Drug Store, c. 1900

Emerson Drug Company Bromo Seltzer, Horse-Drawn Delivery Wagon, c. 1900

Apothecary / Drug Store Interior, Circa 1890s

Detail: Photograph & Lizard Taxidermy

Bird Taxidermy

Pharmacie Montreal Pharmacy,  Prescription Dispensary, c. 1930s. The first pharmacy to stay open 24 hours.

Eckerd's Drug Store, Columbia, South Carolina, 1930s. Eckerd's was founded in 1898 and ran until 2007.

Eckerd's Drug Store, Columbia, South Carolina, 1930s. Eckerd's was founded in 1898 and ran until 2007.

Teaming up for a Historic Forensic Project

Dr. Stanley Burns and noted forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden met to discuss a joint volume on the photographic history of forensic science. This unique project will include Dr. Burns’ historic photos documenting the genesis of medical forensic studies from the 1860s on. These images will be combined with Dr. Baden’s own photographs taken over five decades of work as a medical examiner. Baden’s noted high-profile pathology and expert witness cases have included John F. Kennedy, Czar Nicholas II, Sid Vicious, OJ Simpson and John Belushi. Dr. Baden’s HBO’s Autopsy series is recognized as the first forensic television program. Burns’ photographs have been in numerous exhibitions on historical crime photography and featured on HBO’s Autopsy.

Dr. Michael Baden, Photo by ForensicScience.net

Dr. Stanley Burns Viewing the Baden Collection

Historic Forensic Photographs from The Burns Collection:

Human Skull, London, circa 1930s

Criminal Moulage, Finger Print Magazine, 1936

Detective, France, circa 1915

Los Angeles Sheriff (Frank Gompert) and his Crime Lab, 1929

Plaster Cast Severed Feet of Murdered Woman "The Flirtatious Widow," Boston, 1943

The Vindication of the Finger-Print, Circa 1900

A Camera that Records the Scene of the Accident, Rochester, NY, 1932

Houston Dermatological Society: Dermatology in the 19th Century

On Monday, December 12, Stanley Burns MD, FACS lectured as guest speaker for the Houston Dermatological Society's annual ethics meeting in Houston, Texas.

Nineteenth Century Photography and its Role in the Creation of Modern Dermatology

The core of the lecture consisted of over 250 nineteenth century photographs of dermatological patients.

A Few Topics Discussed:

• Worldwide- Dermatologists produced more photographic atlases than all other medical fields combined.
• New York Dermatologists produced the greatest number of photographic atlases.
• New York’s George Henry Fox, one of the six founders of the American Dermatological Association, produced more atlases than any other physician. He influenced generations of dermatologists.
• Photography produced an objective detailed description.
• Provided a permanent document for future evaluation.
• Allowed non specialists to recognize skin disease.

Dr. Burns with HDS President Melissa Bogle, MD

Melissa Bogle, MD with Asra Ali, MD

The Attendees at Brennan's of Houston

Featured Images:

Urticaria George Henry Fox, MD, New York 1885

Pityriasis Rosea De Gibert,  E. Chatelain, MD & Félix Méheaux, Paris, 1893

Urtica, George Henry Fox, MD, New York 1896

Elephantiasis Henry G. Piffard, MD, New York, 1891

To Learn More About 19th Century Dermatology 

Read Dr. Burns' Four Volume Series 'Skin Pictures'

Photographing the Dead: Observatory Lecture Pics

A big thanks to everyone who attended The Burns Archive lecture and book signing at The Observatory last week. Warm gratitude goes to Joanna Ebenstein and volunteers from The Morbid Anatomy Library for hosting this wonderful event. If you were not able to make it before the event sold out, we look forward to presenting on more lectures in 2012. 

Joanna Ebenstein and Dr. Burns

Attendees at Photographing the Dead

Book Signing and Reception

Dr. Stanley Burns and Lissa Rivera of The Burns Archive

View slideshow below and tag yourself in our Picasa web album:

Upcoming Lecture Reminder: Photographing the Dead

 

 

THE HISTORY OF POSTMORTEM PHOTOGRAPHY FROM THE BURNS COLLECTION AND ARCHIVE 

 
ILLUSTRATED LECTURE AND BOOK SIGNING WITH STANLEY B. BURNS, MD

 

 Observatory: 543 Union Street (at Nevins), Brooklyn, NY 11215
Monday, December 5th, 8:00pm, Admission: $5

 Presented by Morbid Anatomy

Postmortem photography, photographing a deceased person, was a common practice in the 19th and early 20th centuries. These photographs, from the beginning of the practice until now, are special mementos that hold deep meaning for mourners through visually “embalming” the dead. Although postmortem photographs make up the largest group of nineteenth-century American genre photographs, until recent years they were largely unseen and unknown. Dr. Burns recognized the importance of this phenomenon in his early collecting when he bought his first postmortem photographs in 1976. Since that time he has amassed the most comprehensive collection of postmortem photography in the world and has curated several exhibits and published three books on the subject: the Sleeping Beauty series. Tonight, Dr. Burns will speak about the practice of postmortem photography from the 19th century until today and share hundreds of images from his collection.

These titles will be available for sale & signing at Observatory the night of the lecture:
 
Sleeping Beauty III Memorial Photography: The Children
Sleeping Beauty II: Grief, Bereavement & The Family in Memorial Photography… 
Shooting Soldiers: Civil War Medical Photography by R.B. Bontecou 
News Art: Manipulated Photographs from the Burns Archive
Deadly Intent, Crime & Punishment: Photographs from the Burns Archive 
Seeing Insanity: Photography & The Depiction of Mental Illness 

Below are a few more of the hundreds of images that will be discussed: 

Mother with Child Dead, from the Measles. Ambrotype, circa 1857.

 

 

"Mad' King Ludwig of Bavaria, The Drowned Swan King. Cabinet Card, 1886.

Visiting the Pet Cemetery,  circa 1937

Sleeping Beauty Under Canopy in Slumber Room, circa 1915

     

About Sleeping Beauty: Dr. Burns’ first book on postmortem photography, Sleeping Beauty: Memorial Photography in America (1990) has been widely recognized as one of the most important photography books of all time. Sleeping Beauty has influenced an eclectic array of fields, from bereavement counseling and education to cultural anthropology, history, medicine, philosophy, religion and spirituality (not to mention pop music) and has been cited in debates on the death penalty, euthanasia and abortion. It has been the subject of numerous scholarly papers as well as seminars and exhibitions at notable institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and The New Museum of Contemporary Art. A decade later the Archive published Sleeping Beauty II: Grief, Bereavement & The Family in Memorial Photography American & European Traditions in conjunction with an exhibit at the Musée d’Orsay. Sleeping Beauty III Memorial Photography: The Children, the third installment in this series was released this year to accompany a traveling exhibition.