True Story: Photography, Journalism, and Media

Exhibitions

Robert Heinecken (American, 1931–2006), Untitled, from the series Are You Rea, 1964–68.

Gelatin silver print. 5 7/16 x 7 1/4 in. (13.81 x 18.42 cm). Purchase, with funds from the Ralph and Cora Oberndorfer Family Trust, M2009.20

Overview

  • November 15, 2024–March 16, 2025

  • Herzfeld Center for Photography and Media Arts

  • Free for Members

  • Included with admission

Drawn from the Museum’s photography and media arts collection, True Story: Photography, Journalism, and Media explores ways that photographers and artists have understood and wielded the power of images to convey the events of our world. The exhibition calls for audiences to pay attention to an image’s context and consider its creator’s motivations, highlighting photography’s nuances and the significance of media literacy.

True Story presents more than 100 objects—photographs, magazines, collages, and a film—in three parts. Beginning the exhibition, “One Small Frame” is a section devoted to single images from the history of photojournalism. Hung chronologically, each image captures a news story in its entirety. “A Unified Thread” presents the work of photojournalists who—whether pursuing their own interests or working on assignment—used multiple images to create the narratives of the news they covered. The artists featured in “Media Messages” reflect on and critique the role photographic images play in the media landscape at large.

True Story: Photography, Journalism, and Media includes works by Lewis Wickes Hine, Wayne Miller, Danny Lyon, Larry Burrows, Bruce Conner, and Taryn Simon, among many others, and was curated by Ariel Pate, assistant curator of photography at the Milwaukee Art Museum.

Selected artworks

Lewis Wickes Hine (American, 1874–1940), A typical spinner. Mamie – Lancaster Cotton Mills, S.C. Location: Lancaster, South Carolina, 1908.

Gelatin silver print. Image: 4 11/16 × 6 5/8 in (11.91 × 16.83 cm); sheet: 4 13/16 × 7 in (12.22 × 17.78 cm). Gift of the Sheldon M. Barnett Family M1973.83

Wayne Forest Miller (American, 1918–2013), Father and son, 1947.

Gelatin silver print. Image and sheet: 13 1/4 × 10 1/2 in. (33.66 × 26.67 cm). Gift of Wayne F. Miller Family, M2023.201 © Wayne F. Miller Estate

Danny Lyon (American, b. 1942), Cairo, Illinois. SNCC field secretary, later SNCC Chairman, now Congressman John Lewis, and others pray during a demonstration, 1962, printed 1993.

Gelatin silver print. Image: 8 11/16 × 12 15/16 in. (22.07 × 32.86 cm) Sheet: 10 15/16 × 13 15/16 in. (27.78 × 35.4 cm). Gift of Virginia Drexler Clark, M1995.539.3

Larry Burrows (English, 1926–1971), Reaching Out, South Vietnam, 1966.

Dye imbibition print, printed October 1998. Image: 18 1/16 × 27 1/2 in. (45.88 × 69.85 cm) Sheet: 20 11/16 × 30 in. (52.55 × 76.2 cm). Gift of Photography Council, M1998.225

William Weege, (American, 1935–2020), And Now to Flowers for War!, 1968.

Paper collage on board. Image: 7 1/4 × 6 7/16 in. (18.42 × 16.35 cm) Sheet: 10 7/8 × 8 7/16 in. (27.62 × 21.43 cm). Gift of Sue Steinmann, M2020.98

Lewis Wickes Hine (American, 1874–1940), Why this Double Standard?, ca. 1913.

Gelatin silver print. Image: 6 1/8 × 3 5/16 in. (15.56 × 8.41 cm) Sheet: 6 15/16 × 4 15/16 in. (17.62 × 12.54 cm). Gift of Robert Mann, M1978.193

Wayne Forest Miller (American, 1918–2013), Migrant workers, December 1949.

Gelatin silver print. Image: 10 3/8 × 13 1/2 in. (26.35 × 34.29 cm) Sheet: 10 15/16 × 14 in. (27.78 × 35.56 cm). Gift of Wayne F. Miller Family, M2023.230 © Wayne F. Miller Estate

Danny Lyon (American, b. 1942), Leesburg, Georgia. Arrested for demonstrating in Americus, teenage girls are kept in a stockade in the countryside, August 1963, printed 1993.

Gelatin silver print. Image: 8 11/16 × 12 7/8 in. (22.07 × 32.7 cm) Sheet: 10 7/8 × 13 15/16 in. (27.62 × 35.4 cm). Gift of Emory E. Clark, M1996.11.4

Christian Patterson (American, b. 1972), Caril Ann (Captured), 2005–2011.

Gelatin silver print with acrylic and graphite. Image and sheet: 8 1/2 × 7 7/8 in. (21.59 × 20 cm). Purchase, with funds from the Herzfeld Foundation, Susan and Tony Krausen and the Betty Ciurej Memorial, M2013.22

Wisconsin News, Hoan First to Pose for Art Institute Collection, 1936.

Gelatin silver print. Image: 7 1/2 × 8 in. (19.05 × 20.32 cm) Sheet: 7 3/4 × 8 5/8 in. (19.69 × 21.91 cm). Gift of William Gregory, M2019.124<

Elmer Richardson (American, active 20th century), “Milton Babick, I Arrest You for Murder”, 1949.

Gelatin silver print. Image and sheet: 10 15/16 × 13 7/16 in. (27.78 × 34.13 cm). Gift of the Wisconsin News Photographers Association to the Edward Farber Memorial Collection, M1983.154

Robert Heinecken (American, 1931–2006), A Case Study in Finding an Appropriate TV Newswoman (Jane Pauley/Bryant Gumbel), 1984.

Silver dye bleach prints. 32 5/8 × 13 13/16 in. (82.87 × 35.09 cm). Purchase, Richard and Ethel Herzfeld Foundation Acquisition Fund, M2004.577

John Biever (American, active 20th century), Bart Starr’s Winning T.D. in N.F.L. Championship Game vs. Dallas, December 31, 1967.

Gelatin silver print. Image and sheet: 10 1/2 × 13 1/2 in. (26.67 × 34.29 cm). Gift of the Wisconsin News Photographers Association to the Edward Farber Memorial Collection, M1983.26

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Support

Leadership sponsor

  • Milwaukee Art Museum’s Friends of Art

Supporting sponsor

Exhibitions in the Herzfeld Center for Photography and Media Arts are sponsored by

  • Herzfeld Foundation

The Milwaukee Art Museum extends its sincere thanks to the Visionaries.

  • Mark and Debbie Attanasio

  • Donna and Donald Baumgartner

  • Murph Burke

  • Joel and Caran Quadracci

  • Sue and Bud Selig

  • Jeff and Gail Yabuki