Now Showing: The Museum of the City of New York, the Laurie M Tisch Illumination Fund, and Aperture Foundation present Moveable Feast: Fresh Produce and the NYC Green Carts Program.

Five emerging artists – LaToya Ruby Frazier, Thomas Holton, Gabriele Stabile, Will Steacy, and Shen Wei – have been commissioned to document the ongoing Green Cart Initiative, which has placed 1000 mobile food carts offering fresh fruit and vegetables throughout the five boroughs. Reflecting on the impact these carts have on individuals and their surrounding communities – many of which have otherwise limited access to fresh produce – the artists photographed the carts themselves, the vendors, customers, and the contrasting commercial/ food landscapes around the carts, contemplating everything from interpersonal relationships to urban culture to the health issues related to food deserts.

And while push carts are a historic urban icon – as demonstrated in the exhibition’s inclusion of some fantastic historical photographs by artists like Berenice Abbott – the show documents the Green Cart Program’s attempt to address the very modern civic issue of unequal access to nutritional foods.

Moveable Feast: Fresh Produce and the NYC Green Carts Program is organized by Sean Corcoran, Curator of Prints and Photographs at the Museum of the City of New York, and Denise Wolff from Aperture Foundation.

Moveable Feast runs through July 10th at the Museum of the City of New York.

*above: Gabriele Stabile, Untitled (From the series: Street Smart), 2009, courtesy of the Artist and Aperture Foundation. Gabriele Stabile documented the daily routines of several vendors, including their interactions with customers into whose homes he was invited, and where he was able to document food preparation and meal time – and the impact of fresh produce on individual.

*above: Gabriele Stabile, Untitled (From the series: Street Smart), 2009, courtesy of the Artist and Aperture Foundation

*above: Berenice Abbott, Hot Dog Stand, April 8, 1936, Collection of the Museum of the City of New York

*above: Thomas Holton, 8th Avenue Traffic, 2010, courtesy of the Artist and Aperture Foundation. Thomas Holton followed a group of vendors – new generation Bengali immigrants – who have found jobs in the program, and who balance their lives here with the needs of their families abroad.

*above: Thomas Holton, Hussain and Two Roommates, 2009, courtesy of the Artist and Aperture Foundation

*above: Thomas Holton, Mohammed and Hussain with a Roommate, 2010, courtesy of the Artist and Aperture Foundation

*above: Alta Ruth Hahn , Pretzel Woman, Hester Street, ca. 1935, Collection of the Museum of the City of New York, Gift of Dr. Robert Drapkin

*above: Will Steacy, Empty Grocery Store on Block Lined with Vacant Buildings, Looking South from Fulton Street & Garvey Avenue, Brooklyn, 2009, courtesy of Artist and Aperture Foundation. Will Steacy depicted the urban landscapes surrounding the Green Carts—the streets, sidewalks, and buildings, the fast food restaurants, bodegas, and markets—revealing without shying away from the reality of challenging living conditions.

*above: Will Steacy, Neighborhood Residents in Front of Tony’s, Looking West from Knickerbocker Avenue & Dekalb Avenue, Brooklyn, 2010, courtesy of Artist and Aperture Foundation

*above: Will Steacy, Empty Vegetable Stand on Valentines Day, Looking East from 3rd Avenue & 110th Street, New York, 2010, courtesy of Artist and Aperture Foundation

*above: Byron Company, Street Vendors, Hester Street, 1898, Collection of the Museum of the City of New York, Gift of Percy Byron

*Images courtesy of the Museum of the City of New York

A potent pair of photography exhibits at San Francisco’s MoMA – New Topographics and Picturing Modernity – examine the concept of place and identity in American photography.

The first, New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape, is a restaging of an exhibition first held in 1975 at the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York. Signaling a new approach to landscape photography, and the impact of Conceptualism and Minimalism on 1970s photography, New Topographics marks a dramatic shift in attitude towards the subject of landscapes.

Unlike their predecessors, such as Ansel Adams and Minor White, the New Topographics photographers did not use their work to express transcendent, personal experiences with nature. Rather, they depicted the ordinary landscapes that surround us, including elements of the built environment often overlooked or considered eyesores: gas stations, tract homes, motels, and parking lots. The show’s reincarnation features nearly 150 photographs from all ten photographers from the original show – Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Joe Deal, Frank Gohlke, Nicholas Nixon, John Schott, Stephen Shore, and Henry Wessel – all representative of this dramatic re-conceptualization of landscape, and a reflection of the complex and ambiguous relationship between humans and the environment. As Nixon described the approach, “The world is infinitely more interesting than any of my opinions concerning it. This is not a description of a style or an artistic posture, but my profound conviction.”

*above: from New Topographics: Bernd and Hilla Becher (German, 1931-2007 and b. 1934), Preparation Plant, Harry E. Colliery Coal Breaker, Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, USA, 1974; © Hilla Becher, 2009

*above: from New Topographics: Robert Adams (American, b. 1937), Mobile Homes, Jefferson County, Colorado, 1973; George Eastman House collections; © Robert Adams, courtesy of Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, and Matthew Marks Gallery, New York

*above: from New Topographics: Lewis Baltz (American, b. 1945), East Wall, McGaw Laboratories, 1821, George Eastman House collections; © Lewis Baltz

The second, complementary exhibition, Picturing Modernity, further explores the concept of place and identity in American photography with work made from the 19th century to the present by Berenice Abbott, Walker Evans, Timothy O’Sullivan, Joel Sternfeld, Alfred Stieglitz, and many others. Highlights include an installation of sculptures and photographs by William Christenberry and a selection of photographs from Wright Morris‘s series Home Place to mark the centenary of the photographer’s birth. Photographs of a decimated Charleston, South Carolina by George N. Barnard – best known for his photo-documentation of the American Civil War, during which time he followed Union General William Tecumseh Sherman’s infamous march to the sea – further reinforce the concept of man’s vulnerable relationship to place.

*above: from Picturing Modernity: William Christenberry, T. B Hick’s Store, Newbern, Alabama, 1991/2008; Collection SFMOMA, purchase through a gift of Randi and Bob Fisher; © William Christenberry, courtesy Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York

*above: from Picturing Modernity: Milton Rogovin, Lower West Side, 1972. Gelatin silver print, 8 in x 10 in, Gift of Ellen and Jon F. Vein. © Milton Rogovin.

*above: from Picturing Modernity: Wright Morris, Reflection in Oval Mirror, Home Place, 1947; gelatin silver print; Collection SFMOMA, Gift of Robert Fisher; © 2003 Center for Creative Photography, Arizona Board of Regents

*above: from Picturing Modernity: Berenice Abbott, Shelter on the Water Front, Coenties Slip, Pier 5, East River, Manhattan, 1938; gelatin silver print; Collection SFMOMA

New Topographics and Picturing Modernity are both open to the public til October 3, 2010.
For more information, visit SFMoMA.org.

*All images courtesy of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.