VSRI Lecture by Molly Kalkstein

Competing ideas about whether photography is a medium of interchangeable duplicates or of valuable originals have circulated throughout its history, but never did they have such tangible repercussions as during and in the immediate aftermath of the so-called “photo boom” of the 1970s. At the core of this boom was the emergence of a robust market heralding an unprecedented rise in prices and status for photographic prints.

This presentation will examine and contextualize the professional practices, public discourses, and shifts in language that underpinned the repositioning of photography as a fine art collectible, considering ways that developments during this period exerted an outsized influence on the study, exhibition, and valuation of photographs—one that continues to resonate through the present day.