Roxana Marcoci, Curator, Department of Photography. Ms. Marcoci curated this show and conceived the book which accompanies the exhibition.

The Original Copy: Photography of Sculpture, 1839 to Today The Museum of Modern Art August 1-November 1, 2010 The advent of photography in 1839 brought into focus the critical role that the copy plays in the perception of art, particularly as it pertained to the history of sculpture. Sculpture was among the first subjects to be treated in photography. There were many reasons for this, including the immobility of sculpture, which suited the long exposure times needed with the early photographic process. There was also the desire to document, collect, publicize and circulate objects that were not always portable. Throughout the years photographers have not only interpreted sculpture but they have created stunning reinventions of it. Catalogue for The Original Copy: Photography of Sculpture, 1839 to Today exhibition, 256 pp. 302 color and duotone reproductions. This exhibition has been conceived and organized by Roxana Marcoci, Curator of MoMA's Department of Photography. On view: over 300 photographs, magazines and journals by more than 100 artists, from the dawn of modernism to the present. Conceived around ten conceptual modules, the show examines the rich legacy of photography and the aesthetic shifts that have taken place in the medium over the last 170 years. Eugène Atget, Walker Evans, Auguste Rodin, Constantine Brancusi along with Lee Friedlander, Bruce Nauman, Barbara Kruger, and Rachel Harrison, to name only a few, exemplify how fruitfully and unpredictably photography and sculpture has intertwined. Ms. Marcoci had edited an excellent catalogue which is available on-line and in the gift shop.

Glenn Lowry with John Elderfield. Mr. Elderfield co-curated the Matisse Exhibition currently on view at MoMA, which I covered a few weeks ago for NYSD.

Roxana Marcoci, Curator, Department of Photography. Ms. Marcoci curated this show and edited the comprehensive (and beautiful) book which accompanies the exhibition.

MoMA's Director Glenn Lowry with Ms. Marcoci.

The first section, Sculpture in the Age of Photography, considers how shortly after its advent in 1839, photography became the primary medium of analysis in the modern discipline of art history. Art history, in fact, as we know it today, is the child of photography. Photography is a child of the industrial era — a medium that came of age alongside the steam engine and the railroad. So, it is not surprising that one of photography's early functions was to wrench the physically inaccessible art object away from its original site and bring it closer to the viewer. This introductory module presents pictures of sculpture in situ, in the artist's studio, and in the context of museums, underlying photography's analysis of virtually every aspect of art.

William Henry Fox Talbot British, 1800-1877 Bust of Patroclus Before February 7, 1846 Salt print from a calotype negative

Adolphe Bilordeaux French 1807-1875 Plaster Hand 1864 Albumen silver print

Lorraine O'Grady American, born 1934 Sister IV, L: Devonia's sister, Lorraine; Nefertiti's Sister. Mutnedjmet from Miscegenated Family Album 1980/94 Silver dye bleach print

Charles Nègre French, 1820-1880 The Mystery of Death, Medallion by Auguste Préault November 1858 Photogravure

Ken Domon Japanese 1909-1990 Left: Right Hand of the Sitting Image of Buddha Shakyamuni in the Hall of Miroku, Muro-Ji, Nara Right: Left Hand of the Sitting Image of Buddha Shakyamuni in the Hall of Miroku, Muro-Ji, Nara Silver Gelatin Prints

Clarence Kennedy American 1892-1972 Plate XXV from The Tomb by Antonio Rosselino for the Cardinal of Portugal 1933 Gelatin silver print

Clarence Kennedy American 1892-1972 Plate XVIII from The Tomb by Antonio Rosselino for the Cardinal of Portugal 1933 Gelatin silver print

Clarence Kennedy American, 1892-1972 Plate XX from The Tomb by Antonio Rosselino for the Cardinal of Portugal 1933 Gelatin silver print

Frances Benjamin Johnson American, 1864-1952 Eastern High School, Washington, D.C. c.1899 Cyanotype

Brassaï (Gyula Halász) French, born Transylvania, 1899-1984 At the Academy Julian 1932 Gelatin silver print

Barbara Kruger American, born 1945 Untitled (Your Gaze Hits the Side of My Face) 1984 Gelatin silver print

Artist Jan De Cock from Belgium standing in front of his two works in the exhibition. Said Mr. De Cock: "Roxana Marcoci is so amazing. She flew all the way over to Belgium to see my work in the studio. Two years ago she curated at MoMA the first museum exhibition of my work in the States."

Peter Galassi, Chief Curator of MoMA's Department of Photography.

Luis Medina, who has worked at MoMA as a security guard for 17 years.

This section highlights the influential and highly idiosyncratic photographic practices of four artists: Eugène Atget, Auguste Rodin, Constantin Brancusi and Marcel Duchamp. During the first quarter of the twentieth century, Atget took hundreds of photographs of sculptures in Paris and its outlying gardens, especially at Versailles, Saint-Cloud, and Sceaux, his oeuvre amounting to a visual compendium of the French heritage at the time. Bernice Abbott wrote that Atget was "an urbanist historian, a Balzac of the camera, from whose work we can weave a large tapestry of French civilization." The tapestry to which Abbott is referring included series of pictures of statues, monuments and reliefs in the neighborhoods of Old Paris and its surburban environs.

Eugène Atget French, 1857-1927 Versailles, Vase 1906 Albumen silver print

Eugène Atget Versailles, Vase 1906 Albumen silver print

Eugène Atget Versailles, Vase 1906 Albumen silver print

Eugène Atget Cluny-12th century 1921 Albumen silver print

Eugène Atget Parc de Sceaux Morning, 8:00, 1925 Gelatin silver printing-out paper print

Eugène Atget Parc de Sceaux June 1925 Gelatin silver printing-out-paper print

Eugène Atget Versailles—Hercules and Telephus by Jean-Baptiste Jouvenet 1923-24 Matte albumen silver print

Eugène Atget Versailles—Deceit by Louis Le Conte 1923-24

Jamie Niven was sitting in the lobby waiting to see the Matisse show. Mr. Niven is Vice Chairman of Sotheby's and on the board of MoMA. He was telling me about a wonderful new program at MoMA where they take Alzheimer's patients through the exhibitions and how they relate to what they are seeing, especially when there are vibrant colors involved.

Matt Whitworth and Janet Borden, who run the Janet Borden Gallery.

Kenneth Baker, art critic for the San Francisco Chronicle.

Rodin never took pictures of his sculptures yet he reserved the creative act for himself, actively directing the enterprise of photographing his work by controlling staging, lighting, background, and point of view.

Edward Steichen American, born Luxembourg, 1879-1973 Rodin—The Thinker 1902 Gum bichromate print I knew Edward Steichen when he was married to my friend Joanna. Following his death, Joanna Steichen continued to live in Manhattan and in the summer, in Montauk. I am sad to say she died on Saturday, July 28th. Her death by drowning was reported in the East Hampton Star.

Eugène Druet French, 1868-1917 Clenched Hand emerging from a Blanket 1898 Gelatin silver print

Eugène Druet Clenched Hand emerging from the Folds of a Blanket 1898 Gelatin silver print

Michele Gerber Klein.

Richard Oldenburg and Peter Galassi. Mr. Oldenburg's brother Claes is represented in the exhibition.

Brancusi made explicit photography's capacity to formulate “optical manifestoes.” His pictures of gleaming bronzes, known as photos radieuses, are characterized by flashes of light that explode the unity of the sculptural gestalt, and his scenographic combination of sculptures and pedestals within the studio for the camera constitutes a visual journal as integral to the understanding of his work “as, it has been suggested, Delacroix's journal or Van Gogh's letters were to their paintings.”

Constantin Brancusi French, born Romania, 1876-1957 Mademoiselle Pogany II 1920 Gelatin silver print

Constantin Brancusi Bird in Space c.1929 Gelatin silver print

Constantin Brancusi Princess X c. 1930 Gelatin silver print

Constantin Brancusi The Blond Negress Viewed from the Front (polished bronze) 1926 Gelatin silver print

Constantin Brancusi Overall view of the Studio: Bird in Space (plaster), The Sorceress, Plato, Socrates, Princess X c. 1923-24 Gelatin silver print

Alfred Stieglitz Fountain (photograph of assisted Readymade by Marcel Duchamp) 1917 Gelatin silver print

Duchamp probed the critical role mechanical reproduction plays in the conception of the readymade with Box in a Valise, a case of 69 miniature replicas of his works, “authorized 'original' copies,” which he “copyrighted” in the name of Rrose Sélavy, his female alter ego.

Marcel Duchamp, H.P. Roche, and Beatrice Wood American, born France, 1887-1968 "The Richard Mutt Case" in the Blind Man no. 2 1917 Journal

Marcel Duchamp Box in a Valise (From or by Marcel Duchamp or Rrose Sélavy) 1935-41 Leather valise containing miniature replicas, photographs, color reproductions of works by Duchamp, and one "original" drawing.

Detail of Marcel Duchamp Box in a Valise (From or by Marcel Duchamp or Rrose Sélavy) 1935-41

Detail of Marcel Duchamp Box in a Valise (From or by Marcel Duchamp or Rrose Sélavy) 1935-41

Peter Galassi with Jon Hendricks. Mr. Hendricks is a consulting curator for the Fluxus part of the Contemporary Art show presently on view at MoMA.

Stephen Abramson, a collector.

Luigi Terusso, painter and poet.

Christophe Cherix, co-curator of The Contemporary Art Exhibition presently on view at MoMA, with John Hendricks.

Peter MacGill, President of Pace/MacGill Gallery. Mr. MacGill is one of the most important contemporary photographic gallerists.

Artist Cristian Alexa with his wife, Roxana Marcoci, curator of the exhibition.

Anne Umland, Curator of Painting and Sculpture at MoMA Cristian Alexa, Director of Lombard-Freid Projects Roxana Marcoci, Curator of Photography at MoMA and curator of The Original Copy: Photography of Sculpture, 1839 to Today Agnes Gund, President Emerita, MoMA David Teiger, Trustee, MoMA Klaus Biesenbach, Director of PS1 and Chief Curator at Large at MoMA

Among thematic groupings, Cultural and Political Icons examines the world that public statues inhabit, introducing selections from such influential 20th century photographic essays as Walker Evans's American Photographs (1938), Robert Franks' The Americans (1958), Lee Friedlander's The American Monument (1976), and David Goldblatt's The Structure of Things Then (1998).

Sibylle Bergemann German, born 1941 The Monument, East Berlin 1986 Gelatin silver print

Henri Cartier-Bresson French, 1908-2004 Polonaruvia, Ceylon March 1950 Gelatin silver print

Henri Cartier-Bresson Vatican, Rome, Italy 1958

Henri Cartier-Bresson Place de la République, Paris May 28, 1958

Henri Cartier-Bresson Capitol, Washington, United States 1957 Silver gelatin print

Henri Cartier-Bresson Capital, Washington, United States 1957

Henri Cartier-Bresson Tuskegee, Alabama, United States

Henri Cartier-Bresson What Are Americans Up To? in Paris Match May 10, 1958 Journal

Walker Evans American, 1903-1975 Battlefield Monument, Vicksburg, Mississippi 1936

Lee Friedlander American, born 1934 Mount Rushmore, South Dakota 1969 Gelatin silver print

Tod Papageorge Alice in Wonderland 1978 Gelatin silver print The sculpture, dedicated in 1959, was commissioned by philanthropist George Delacorte from Jose de Creeft. Alice is seated on a giant mushroom, while March Hare and Mad Hatter flank the sculpture on both sides. The timid mouse is perched on top of a smaller mushroom, while the Cheshire cat looks over Alice's shoulder.

David Goldblatt (South African, born 1930) Monument Honouring the 'Contribution of the Horse to South African History.' Erected by the Rapportryers of Bethulie in 1982. Laura Rautenbach was the Sculptor.

Guy Tillim (South African, born 1962) Bust of Agostinho Neto, Quibala, Angola 2008 Pigmented inkjet paper

Guy Tillim (South African, born 1962) Statue of Henry Stanley which Overlooked Kinshasha in Colonial Times 2004 Pigmented jet print

Cyprien Gaillard (French, born 1980) stands in front of his installation of 10 groupings of Polaroids: Geographical Analogies, 2006-09.

Tahila Brenner, who is working this summer as an intern at Howard Greenberg Gallery. Ms. Brenner is a 19-year-old student who lives in Paris the rest of the year, studying at Université Paris Dauphine.

Dorian Deaux, who works at P.S.1. When asked what he did he replied, "I'm just one of the slaves out there."

The Studio Without Walls considers the radical aesthetic changes that took place in the 1960s when a number of artists who did not consider themselves photographers in the traditional sense began using the camera to rework the idea of sculpture, dispensing with the immobile object in favor of an altered site: the built environment, the remote landscape, or a space in which the artist intervened.

Christo American, born Bulgaria 1935 The Museum of Modern Art Packed Project 1968 Oil on cut-and-pasted gelatin silver prints (by Ferdinand Boesch) on board with pencil, colored pencil, cut-and-pasted transparentized paper and pressure-sensitive tape on board. If you look carefully you will see the MoMA building in the background.

Daguerre's Soup: What is Sculpture? is a section dedicated to Dada, Surrealist, and post-Conceptual manifestations. Different generations of artists from Man Ray, Marcel Broodthaers and Alina Szapocznikow to Robert Gober, Rachel Harrison, and Fischli & Weiss, conceived tongue-in-cheek sculptures that exist only as photographs.

Man Ray American, 1890-1976 Man 1918 Gelatin silver print

Robert Gober American, born 1954 Untitled 1999 Gelatin silver print

Bruce Nauman American, born 1941 Composite Photo of Two Messes on the Studio Floor 1967 Gelatin silver print

Robert Smithson American 1938-1973 Yucatan Mirror Displacements (1-9) 1969 Chromogenic color prints from 35 mm slides, printed 2010

Peter Fischli (Swiss, born 1952) & David Weiss (Swiss, born 1946) The Three Sisters 1984 Chromogenic color print

Gabriel Orozco Mexican, born 1962 Cats and watermelons 1992 Silver dye bleach print I covered Orozco's retrospective at MoMA in a previous photojournal for NYSD.

Rachel Harrison American, born 1966 From Voyage of the Beagle 2007 This series consists of 57 inkjet prints, many of which were featured in Holland Cotter's front page Weekend Arts review of this show for The New York Times on Friday, July 30, 2010. The work, whose title alludes to Darwin's voyage on the Beagle before he wrote the Origin of the Species, includes photographs of mehnirs, modernist sculptures, drag-queen mannequins and stuffed animals.

Joachim Pissarro, the great grandson of the painter Camille Pissarro. Mr. Pissarro is a former MoMA Curator, and currently the director of the Hunter Cuny Art Galleries, and the Bershad Professor of Art History.

Julie Galant, owner of Fotofolio, which produces postcards, posters, and greeting cards.

Rebecca Dayan, a 26-year-old model (for Karl Lagerfeld) and actress, Kimberly Pariente, 22, a fashion student and shoe designer, and Marine Adda, 24, who is from Paris.

Robert Storr and Kerstin Bonnier. Mr. Storr is an art critic, curator and dean of the Yale School of Art. Ms. Bonnier is a film producer and head of film production at Svensk Filmindustri, the largest Swedish film company.

MoMA's chief curator of Painting and Sculpture, Ann Temkin.

The Pygmalion Complex section explores the perturbing mix of stillness and living, alluring lifelikeness of statues through the photogenic uncanniness of animated puppets, wax mannequins, dummies, and automata.

André Kertész American, born Hungary, 1894-1985 Geza Blattner 1925 Gelatin silver print

Henri Cartier-Bresson Alberto Giacometti in the Galerie Maeght, Paris 1961 Gelatin silver print

Robert Mapplethorpe Louise Bourgeois 1982 Gelatin silver print This is a photograph of the feisty Bourgeois (who died a few months ago) with her famous sculpture, Fillette, which has a phallic form.

Man Ray American, 1890-1976 Francis Picabia Imitating Rodin's Sculpture of Balzac, 1923 Gelatin silver print

Max Ernst French, born Germany. 1891-1976 Health through Sports c. 1920 Gelatin silver print of photomontage and collage

Man Ray Le Violon d'Ingres 1924 Gelatin silver print mounted on paper

Man Ray Noire et blanche 1926

Gillian Wearing British, born 1963 Self-Portrait at 17 Years Old 2003 Chromogenic color print

Man Ray Coat Stand 1920 Gelatin silver print

Robert Mapplethorpe American 1946-1989 Untitled 1973 Fans of Mapplethorpe should visit MoMA's current exhibition on Contemporary Art, which I recently covered for NYSD. The photographer's luminescent photograph, "Hermes," is hanging in the gallery with the AIDS wallpaper.

The Performing Body as Sculptural Material highlights a series of Happenings, Fluxus and contemporary performances in which the artist's body is manipulated as a prop that could be picked up, bent, or deployed instead of traditional materials like plaster or clay.

Claes Oldenburg American, born Sweden 1929 Claes Oldenburg: Projects for Monuments 1967 Offset lithograph

Yves Klein French 1928-1962 Yves Klein's Leap into the Void 1960 Gelatin silver print (Photograph by Harry Shunk and János Kender)

Milan Knížák Czech, born 1940 Small Environments on the Street 1962-63 Collage of gelatin silver prints, safety pin, and staples on paper When you go see this exhibition, look for that safety pin, which is very hard to find ... almost as hard as the needle in the haystack in the Contemporary Art Exhibition now on view at MoMA.

Red Grooms American, born 1937 The Burning Building 1959 Gelatin silver print (photograph by Max Baker)

Jim Dine American, born 1935 The Car Crash 1960 Gelatin silver print

Bruce Nauman Self-portrait as a Fountain 1966-67/1970/2007 Inkjet print (originally chromogenic color print), printed 2

Bruce Nauman Feet of Clay 1966-67/1970/2007 Inkjet print (originally chromogenic color print), printed 2010

Bruce Nauman Bound to Fail 1966-67/1970/2007 Inkjet print (originally chromogenic color print), printed 2010

Alan Cumming, who used his Razor to get to the MoMA opening. Mr. Cumming is a Scottish stage, television and film actor, writer, director, producer and author. On Broadway he has appeared as Mac the Knife in The Threepenny Opera, the Emcee in Cabaret, for which he won the Tony in 1998, and Design for Living. He also played Fegan Floop in the Spy Kids trilogy and introduces Masterpiece Mystery for PBS. Mr. Cumming plays Eli Gold on the CBS television show The Good Wife, which is one of my favorite programs.

In MoMA's garden: Angelique Campens, curator in Belgium for Domus magazine; Jan De Cock, an artist in the show; Kerstin Bonnier; and Peter Galassi.

Marcel Duchamp Tonsure 1921 Gelatin silver print (photograph by Man Ray) And yes, that is the back of Marcel Duchamps' head with a star-shaped stenciled hair-do. Only the pipe looks familiar.

This is a photograph I took of Marcel Duchamp in New York City on October 24th, 1967. The artist was at the Knoedler Gallery where he was exhibiting his sculpture of Duchamp-Villon (Le Cheval Majeur). Because he was unable to attend the opening of his exhibition, Mr. Duchamp met with members of the press that afternoon at 3 pm. He smoked his cigar the entire time.

Robert Morris American, born 1931 I-Box 1962 Painted plywood cabinet. Sculptmetal and gelatin silver print Seen from one side ...

Robert Morris American, born 1931 I-Box 1962 Painted plywood cabinet. Sculptmetal and gelatin silver print ... and seen from the other!

Edwin Wurm Austrian, born 1954 One Minute Sculptures Montage of 9 Chromogenic color prints Details in the following photos ...

Charles Ray American, born 1953 Plan Piece I and II 1973 Gelatin silver prints, printed 1992 These two photographs made me laugh out loud.

Ana Mandieta American, born Cuba, 1948-1985 Omage from Yagul 1973 Lifetime color photograph

Ana Mandieta American, born Cuba, 1948-1985 Tree of Life 1976 Lifetime color photograph

Hannah Wilke American (1940-1993) S.O.S. - Starification Object Series 1974-82 Gelatin silver prints with chewing gum sculptures. That is chewed chewing gum at the bottom of the photograph.

Raj Roy, Chief Curator of Film at MoMA. Mr. Roy co-curated the brilliant Tim Burton retrospective at MoMA.

Bob Morris, a producer at WNET, Channel 13, with Paul Jackson, MoMA press officer.

Cyprien Gaillard, artist in show.

Laura Bartlett, who runs the gallery in London by the same name that represents the work of Cyprien Gaillard.

Nick Ruiz (MoMA events department), Casey Fitzpatrick (MoMA press communications), Nathan Kovach (Fashion PR for Doc Martens), Martin Levandowki (non-fiction writer specializing in philosophy), and Bryan McKee (fashion editor at GQ magazine).

I have always loved photographing sculptures (and the artists who produce them), which is why I can't resist adding a few of my favorites at the end of this piece. I did this cover of Niki de Saint Phalle's whimsical Nanas in 1968 for New York Magazine. The installation was on 104th street.

Niki de Saint Phalle and her husband, Jean Tinguely.

Artist Marisol with The Royal Family, one of five pieces in her exhibition, "Heads of State," which she exhibited at the Sidney Janis Gallery in New York City. November 1, 1967; Photograph by Jill Krementz.

Sculptor George Segal queues up behind his lifelike commuter line in New York's Port Authority bus station. This photograph was not that easy to take because every time I stepped back with my camera various commuters would see the line and just assume they should be in it. I kept having to shoo them away.

Walter Channing's tree sculpture is in the background. The Channings' 11-month-old daughter Sylvia is seated in the foreground. Bridgehampton, New York.

One of the best vacations my husband, Kurt Vonnegut, and I ever took was to Rome in 1974. This photograph was taken on the Capitoline with the fragment of the colossal Constantine.

Text and photographs © by Jill Krementz [1]; all rights reserved.