Awards
2004 Arthur Kingsley Porter Prize
Robin E. Kelsey, “Viewing the Archive: Timothy O’Sullivan’s Photographs for the Wheeler Survey, 1871–74”(December 2003)
Robert E. Kelsey
Robin E. Kelsey’s “Viewing the Archive: Timothy O’Sullivan’s Photographs for the Wheeler Survey, 1871–74,” which appeared in the December 2003 issue of The Art Bulletin, focuses on photographs taken by O’Sullivan for the US Army’s Wheeler Survey of the American West. In particular, the author examines “the visual affinities that link O’Sullivan’s distinctive pictorial approach to the priorities and tactics of other survey specialists.” Balancing background information on the survey and the careers of O’Sullivan and Lt. George M. Wheeler with analysis of the specific visual properties of the photographs, Kelsey shows how these images could be read and interpreted in a variety of aesthetic and nonart contexts. He posits a middle ground between existing strands of interpretation—contextualist and modernist—where images conceived with an eye toward the requirements of survey information are nonetheless aesthetically striking. Throughout, Kelsey is sensitive to the ways in which graphic data are conveyed and temporal indices are encoded in the photographic medium. His essay combines assiduous archival work with an interpretation that moves beyond the case study to draw out implications in the larger sphere of visual culture.
Committee: John Davis, Smith College, chair; Alfred Acres, Princeton University; Alison Hilton, Georgetown University; Jacqueline E. Jung, University of California, Berkeley; Jonathan Reynolds, University of Southern California.
