Charles Sheeler from postcard


CHARLES SHEELER
&
PHOTOGRAPHIC
MYTH



Contents

Home | 1917--Doylestown | 1920--New York City | 1927--Ford, River Rouge | 1929--Chartres | Conclusion | Bibliography





Sheeler -- New York City, 1920

New York, Towards the Woolworth Building, 1920 New York, Park Row Building, 1920

By 1920, Sheeler's photography had shifted from the agrarian aesthetic of Doylestown to the skyscraper skyline of his new home, New York City (Lucic 47). Here, his work continued to show the absence of human life (see figures New York, Towards the Woo lworth Building; New York, Park Row Building; and New York, Broadway at Fortieth Street and, as with the 1917 photos, it is what the photos don't show that makes them all the more telling. Sheeler avoids all signs of what Lewis M umford calls the "de-humanized" population (Lucic 46). Truly, Sheeler's representation of New York City depicts it as dirt free, void of humans, free from political strife, racial strain, and labor unrest.

New York, Broadway at Fortieth Street, 1920


Contents

Home | 1917--Doylestown | 1920--New York City | 1927--Ford, River Rouge | 1929--Chartres | Conclusion | Bibliography


Created by Michael Kidd as a project of the
American Studies
MA program at the
University of Virginia.