CHARLES SHEELER
&
PHOTOGRAPHIC
MYTH
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CHARLES SHEELER & PHOTOGRAPHIC MYTH |
ContentsHome | 1917--Doylestown | 1920--New York City | 1927--Ford, River Rouge | 1929--Chartres | Conclusion | Bibliography |
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Charles Sheeler (1883-1965) lived during a time of dramatic economic, social and political change in the United States. His life spanned the realization of the cultural effects of the machine age, the rethinking of the agrarian myth, and the begin ning of what anthropologist Stephen M. Fjellman calls a commercial "utopia" that revolves around consumerism and the "decontextualization" of American history. Sheeler used photography as a means to take the reasonably unpleasant objects of the end of th e yeoman farmer myth, skyscraper skylines, factory mass production, and gothic architecture, and incorporate (decontextualize) them into his version of historical myth and pleasurable aesthetic. This brief study of Sheeler's photographs from the years 1917, 1920, 1927, and 1929, will investigate Sheeler's decontextualization of history and his creation of a new set of myths through the use of aesthetic images.
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ContentsHome | 1917--Doylestown | 1920--New York City | 1927--Ford, River Rouge | 1929--Chartres | Conclusion | Bibliography |
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Created by Michael Kidd as a project of the
American Studies MA program at the University of Virginia. |