(Re)viewing Bodies: Selected American Photographs, 1930-2000, a new exhibit on display in the Davison Art Center (DAC) this semester, boasts highlights from the DAC’s comprehensive and prestigious collection of photography. The exhibit is curated by students who, in the fall semester, were enrolled in ARHA 360: Museum Studies, which was taught by Professor and DAC curator Clare Rogan. Through the class, students had the opportunity to curate an exhibition and cooperate with students with shared passion in art and gallery experience.

Rogan, who called this course one of the most exciting experiences in her years of teaching, introduced the 13 student curators at the opening reception on Feb. 7. Four students presented the gallery talk for the exhibit, which explores the variety of ways that 20th-century American photographers have represented the body.

The photos may stimulate discussion of subjects like femininity, child labor, exoticism, and subjectivity. (Re)viewing Bodies deals with both traditional ways of viewing the body, such as its relationship with labor, the body and performance, the body in social situations, and with twists on the traditional concept of the body, such as the abstract, postmodern, or fragmented body. Featured photographers include Diane Arbus, Larry Burrows, Kevin Bubriski, Harry Callahan, Judy Dater, Gordon Parks, and Jerry Uelsmann.

This contrast between the traditionally composed body and representative variations can be a very satisfying aesthetic experience. In Lewis Wickes Hine’s Steelworker, a worker diligently holds the steel cable for Empire State building construction. Though shot in black and white, the photograph still captures the worker’s strength and dynamism. The worker’s centrality within the frame, his heroic pose, and the dramatic contrasts between shadow and light all create a glorious atmosphere. The motivation behind the subject matter is quite clear here: a competent young man is working for the benefit of “a larger, common goal,” as indicated by the curator label.

Garry Winogrand’s Albuquerque, New Mexico also uses dramatic contrasts between dark and light to achieve a striking visual effect. The work addresses the division between suburbia and landscape through a stark composition of a child emerging from a dark garage.

In Aaron Siskind’s Feet 102, 1957, two feet are elegantly depicted, filling the frame. As noted by the curator label written by Aria Danaparamita ’13, the photographer’s fragmentation of the bodily form successfully decontextualizes the subject and invites the viewer to appreciate the work from a purely aesthetic standpoint.

A number of other photographs in the exhibit humorously play with compositional elements and even the artistic historical context into which the pieces fit. The photographs, which address a variety of concerns related to human life and physicality, draw viewers’ attention by providing invigorating aesthetic pleasure.

Rachel Hirsch ’15, one of the student curators, commented on the process of curating the exhibit with her classmates, whose diverse backgrounds helped shape the final product.

“It was a really cool experience to be individually engaged in going to the vault and looking at those master photographs… I got to learn about contemporary art scenes in the other parts of the U.S. where my classmates come from,” Hirsch said.

The curators’ hard work is apparent in the final product. Effective collaboration made  (Re)viewing Bodies an aesthetically complex and cohesive collection of photography that is immensely thought-provoking.