A polestar for photography.

The Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College, Chicago, houses a vast collection of American photography created after 1959, the year of the U.S. publication of Robert Frank's The Americans, the arbitrary yet pertinent date set for the museum's collection policy. "Photography's Multiple Roles: Art, Document, Market, Science" pulls from this collection to examine and find the connection between these four aspects of photography today. The exhibition and catalog include 170 works as well as illuminating essays. The Museum navigates contemporary photography's diverse and complex associations with visionary brilliance.

The exhibition presented an astounding compilation of photographic works by artists from Louise Dahl-Wolfe to Annie Leibovitz; Harold Edgerton to Nancy Burson; Diane Arbus to Nan Goldin; Dorothea Lange to Mary Ellen Mark; Robert Heinecken to Mike and Doug Starn; Ansel Adams to Eliot Porter to Mark Klett. Most of the photographers have served as inspiration for future generations, such as with Anne Noggle, Sally Mann, Carrie Mae Weems, MANUAL, Joel-Peter Witkin and Andres Serrano. As the museum is connected to a school, the students at Columbia College, Chicago are some of the beneficiaries of this exhibition. Perhaps this audience inspired the Museum to hang such an ambitious amount of work in the galleries. Viewing original work is an essential part of the Columbia College education.

Although visually spectacular, the exhibition was at times overwhelming. The sheer quantity of images coupled with the Museum's warren-like physical space made it necessary to place images extremely close together and in every available nook, cranny and stairwell. In addition, unlike the catalog, the physical design of the space and exhibition made it difficult to follow a progression of what was considered art, document, market and science. This was especially evident when encountering Eugenia Parry's quasi-fictional essays printed as wall texts. Although a fascinating juxtaposition, her essays appeared without a context and ended abruptly.

While the exhibition was like an illustration of the big bang theory, the catalog is easier to navigate. It plots an organized and fluid system of understanding photography's multiple roles. The applications and potentialities of this system allow for an appreciation of the photograph as art, as document, as part of the commercial market and as scientific investigation.

The introductory essay by curator Denise Miller, museum director since 1986, provides a balanced, positive and clearly articulated description of the museum's guide for the collection. Miller states that the works "have been most importantly selected for their aesthetic and philosophical perspective; the collection contains renowned works and ground-breaking experiments." The Museum's inclusive and welcoming vision also pays tribute to the past efforts of others in the community. Miller cites the Columbia College Photography Department's initial conviction to create a museum whose mission is to exhibit and collect works that "engage the mind and delight the eye." Miller upholds this conviction with an equally comprehensive vision in concept and form with "Photography's Multiple Roles." She also credits a long line of curators, educators and historians such as Van Deren Coke, A.D. Coleman, Rosalind Krauss, Abigail Solomon-Godeau and Andy Grundberg in the development of an "interactive approach far removed from the purist aesthetics of Modernism."

Each image in the exhibition speaks to this informed layering and aesthetic power. Examples of this are Keith Carter's mesmerizing Atlas Moth (1990) and Edgerton's Football Kick (1938/84). The ripples of shimmering silk of the football player's uniform the split second the football is hurled into the air is a spine-tingling demonstration. For the most part the reproductions in the catalog convey all the images' vibrancy and resonating visual qualities. (Two notable exceptions are Judith Golden's The Juggler [1989-93], reproduced slightly dark, and Porter's Spruce Trees and River, Colorado from the Portfolio The Seasons [1964] which does not translate his virtuoso use of a monochromatic hued palette well.)

The catalog organization and presentation are as vital as the information it contains. Each photograph has standard caption information accompanied by a short description and a brief explanation of how it relates to the photographer's other known work. A unique and useful addition to the accompanying information are cross-reference notations next to the photographs. Though seemingly insignificant, the Museum's interest in various authors discussing the same photographers speaks to their commitment to an open-ended interconnective dialogue surrounding photography's multiple roles. The book was designed by Cheryl Towler Weese and Kathy Frederickson of studio blue and won a bronze medal at the Stiftung Buchkunst, the largest book design competition in the world. Along with the layout the designers utilized the fonts to enhance the content. The section on "Market" uses the strong bold font VAG Rounded, while the section on "Science" uses the boxy, futuristic Foundry Gridnik.

The catalog's foreword by John Mulvany, Chairman of the Museum's governing board, begins with a quotation from T. S. Eliot's "Four Quartets":

Time present and time past Are both perhaps present in time future And time future contained in time past...

These words strike at the core of the museum's intent. This exhibition champions a multidimensional philosophy to understanding photography as related to "cultural, historical, political and social ideas." In "Photography's Multiple Roles" there is no hierarchical importance of one direction of photography over another, nor does the book present a single continuum where roles and aesthetics are diametrically opposed. The combination of essays and images represents an appreciation for all photography and an enthusiasm for the infinite ways in which its roles intertwine and relate to ideas outside the medium. In this sense photography itself is a core from which art, document, the market and science radiate, where images are ideas containing a wide spectrum of intellectual discourse.

Mulvany's reference to Eliot's "Four Quartets" reflects the four roles of photography and the four main essays in Photography's Multiple Roles. The title "Four Quartets" implies music, and like music, each essay has a distinctive tone, although they are underscored by a unifying theme. "Four Quartets" also has mathematical associations - four to the fourth power, common denominators and exponential values; it is an apt metaphor. In fact the essays, though very different, often refer to the same photographers, images and concepts. They build upon each other, creating a whole that equals more than the sum of its parts.

Parry's "A hundred different stories: The art of photography" is a series of short poetic passages. These are not critical essays nor formal analyses. For Parry images are triggers for recollection, comments on culture and revelations about art and meaning. Storytelling becomes an apt form for responding and reacting to particular images on a profoundly personal level. Many of her story titles point to an intimate relationship such as "Prayer," "The Most Romantic Script" and "Cat Claws Will Find You." "A hundred different stories" is reminiscent of John Szarkowski's 1973 Looking at Photographs: 100 Pictures from the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, but for another generation.

Each of Parry's texts are anecdotal, insightful and passionate, pondering the implications of the images. In commenting on Danny Lyon's Uptown, Chicago (1965), Parry's language is sometimes erotic and breathy. Parry writes, "[Lyon] frames this makeshift beauty shop as a concoction of adolescent puppets and cheap bric-a-brac. In doing so, you can feel the presence of his breath. Slow and sexual, it's concentrated not in his groin but in his eye and finger pressing the shutter." At other times, as with "Don't Touch Me," her words are terse, acerbic and explosive. Of Lange's Argument in a Trailer Camp, Richmond, California (1944) she says: "The man is a raised cleaver. The woman a battering ram, leading with her shoulder, positioned squarely. . . The space between their stand-off is a bold noise, a referee gloating over rageful silence."

Naomi Rosenblum, celebrated author of A History of Women Photographers (1994), also discusses Lange's work in "Documentary Photography Past + Present." Rosenblum's approach is far more objective. She states "Exemplified by Lange's Displaced Tenant Farmers, Goodlet, Hardemon Co., Texas (1938), documentary images appear to describe actuality, but they also invite an emotional response; in this case the passive poses of idle farmers (who the title informs us have lost their farms) seen against the dark vertical shapes are suggestive of their despondent state." If not for Miller's words and the support of cross-referencing notations between essays, Rosenblum's and Parry's essays would seem stylistically incongruous. However, Photography's Multiple Roles revels in their differences. This allows individual authors' contributions concerning the same photographer to be exponential when compared with one another.

In "Professional and commercial photography" Rod Slemmons analyzes the role of photography in the professional market. Aware that commercial photography is not often seen as creative, Slemmons discusses the dialogue between art and advertising in photography. He points out "the success of both depends on seeing them as integral parts of the entire range and use of the medium." Slemmons makes convincing arguments relating the photographs used in "The United Colors of Benetton" advertising campaign to Life magazine's publication of Margaret Bourke-White's Fort Peck Dam images. In both the power of the photographs depend on the juxtaposition of advertising and wealth with serious social issues. Slemmons also evidences a mutual dependency and dialogue between art and advertising photography in his discussion of Dahl-Wolfe, Heinecken and Barbara Kruger.

The same is true in F. David Peat's "Photography and science: Co-conspirators." Peat, independent research scientist and author of various publications on art and science, discusses the relationship between art and science. In Berenice Abbott's and Catherine Wagner's work, among others, he points out photography's role as a mirror of scientific progress. He relates chaos theory to works by Todd Watts and Nancy Burson. For Peat the relationship between photography and science is one of similar investigative methodology. "Chemistry, along with much contemporary science," he says, "is about reaction, transformation, change, complexity, nonlinearity, and above all, open systems."

Like Peat's example of an open system and reflexive approach, the section at the end of the catalog, "Viewpoints," is equally expansive. It presents three essays that accompanied past exhibitions at the museum written by experts in fields outside of photography. "Spaces for the self: The symbolic imagery of place," a fascinating discourse by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, social psychologist and professor of education and behavioral science at the University of Chicago, focuses on the importance of the photograph in everyday life. He passionately believes that visual reminders of the things we value are a key aspect of personal and cultural growth. He explains the interaction between the viewer and the work in terms of four dimensions - perceptual, emotional, intellectual, communicative. Painter and professor of art at Northwestern University, Ed Paschke contributes to the discourse with a lucid essay entitled "Portraits: A process of self-discovery." Paschke describes portraiture through nine facets of identity and collective identity. These nine facets are age, masks, body, doubles, celebrity, group, lifestyle, place and race. He provides telling examples through the work of Nicholas Nixon, Burson, Neal Slavin, Sandy Skoglund and many others. Franze Schulze, architectural historian, critic and professor emeritus at Lake Forest College, Ill, comments on the urban landscape in "The city: Harbor of humanity." Schulze stresses the vitality of the city as a manifestation of the exchange between individuals in order "to find meaning in life and appropriate forms to depict it." At times, however, his language is arch and zealous as he ponders the suburb as perhaps the "tired old middle of a forgotten seaside hamlet."

"Photography's Multiple Roles: Art, Document, Market, Science" overflows with spectacular images and enlightening information. Though the exhibition seemed to explode with images it was nevertheless exciting to see so many great works together. The catalog provides the structure for the museum's complex vision by focusing on similarities and relationships between photography's multiple roles while reaching beyond photography itself. This approach is not only fascinating but provides a useful matrix for considering the potential of the media itself.

The Museum of Contemporary Photography's work is related in many ways to Gyorgy Kepes's brilliant series "Vision + Value" (1965). Kepes, then a professor of Visual Design at MIT, dedicated the series to the search for values common to contemporary scientific, technological and artistic achievement. Each edition in the series combined essays by experts from various disciplines on a single theme. He hoped to stimulate the circulation of ideas and interconnect disciplines. This process in turn would provide a structure for understanding the world and for using "vision" to realize human potential. In the volume Structure in Art and Science, Kepes states, "To rely solely on one area of our knowledge may lead us into blind alleys."

K. JOHNSON BOWLES is an artist and writer. Currently she is the Director of the Moreau Galleries at Saint Mary's College, Notre Dame, indiana, where she also teaches in the department of art.