Chosen from a museum holding of more than 75,000, the 70 images presented in A Modern Love: Photographs from The Israel Museum, Jerusalem belong to a dramatic moment that most art historians refer to as Modernism. These masterworks were created by Western camera artists in the early decades of the last century, but when we look at them now, we find aesthetic decisions and visual interests which are still with us, steering the way we see the world long after crossing the threshold of the digital age. From the perspective of art history, this may challenge the assumption that Modernism is a period clearly registered as past. But from our broader perspective as viewers responding to pictures, it means that today’s omnipresent, virtual reception and production of images has more in common with the analog era than we often think. Rather than pursuing a historical argument, this book offers ways of looking at photographs. If we are still ready to give ourselves up to these great images, we join the ranks of photography’s lovers while affirming the enduring genius of its avant-garde practitioners.
