’50s photos witness city’s reform

“Witness to the Fifties: Selections from the Pittsburgh Photographic Library, 1950–1953″… “Witness to the Fifties: Selections from the Pittsburgh Photographic Library, 1950–1953”

James Blair, Clyde Hare, Elliot Erwitt, others

Through Feb. 26, 2006

Carnegie Museum of Art

Free with student ID

(412) 688-8690

When Iron City started using aluminum bottles as an innovative attempt to revitalize the Pittsburgh Brewing Co., they were turning to a Pittsburgh tradition: The city has built a legacy on its ability to reinvent itself in times of struggle.

Part of this legacy is on display in the Carnegie Museum of Pittsburgh’s “Witness to the Fifties: Selections from the Pittsburgh Photographic Library, 1950–1953.” The exhibition is a series of pictures taken from an archive of professional photographs meant to document life in a changing post-war city.

Following World War II, Pittsburgh strived to become more than just the “Smoky City” of industry by revamping itself as a hub of urban livelihood and culture.

The time became known as the Pittsburgh Renaissance, and in 1950 the city’s political, corporate and educational leaders – among them David Lawrence and Richard King Mellon – decided to officially endorse a project to capture the essence of a city undergoing revitalization and created the Pittsburgh Photographic Library (PPL).

The pictures chronicle everything from Downtown construction and housing developments along the William Penn Highway to the everyday lives of Hill District residents and the bustle of the city lined with “T” rails and trains.

Though he wasn’t a photographer himself, the Allegheny Conference on Community Development chose Roy Stryker to undertake the PPL project. Stryker, recognized for his ability as a director of documentary photography, assembled a team of both nationally and locally renowned photographers to document the essence of life in Pittsburgh.

Each artist seems to have his or her own way of capturing the city in an illuminating way. Several of the photographers, such as James Blair, chose to capture the city’s modern developments. A view of the construction of Gateway Center through the frame of the ruins of the Exposition Building suggests a perfect paradigm for the new ways of Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh native Clyde Hare’s images of Downtown and housing developments east of Wilkinsburg share a similar sentiment while also contrasting with Russell Lee’s and Regina Fisher’s stark depictions of life in the Hill District. Lee’s best representations of the area feature dilapidated row houses alongside Forbes Avenue with washtubs hanging off one side.

Esther Bubley and Richard Saunders both strived to bring out the lives of individuals. Bubley’s work shows people immersed in their backgrounds, suggesting the strong connection of Pittsburghers to their city as they go about their everyday lives. Saunders’ pictures are portraits that manage to document the lifestyle of the time through people’s clothing and appearances.

From a different perspective, the photography of Elliot Erwitt strives to romanticize the life of Pittsburgh while remaining grounded in reality. Featuring subjects ranging from two nuns walking down a snow-covered Mt. Washington road to the backside of a man in sharp focus with a blurred-out lounge singer in the background make for some of the more interesting images in the show. His “Couple at the Monongahela River” is the perfect fusion of his romanticism and the documentary aspect of the PPL project.

Overall, “Witness to the Fifties” shares a past that we mostly only hear and read about. Seeing the city from the perspective of such a broad and unique set of photos brings, if nothing else, a humbling awareness and appreciation for how Pittsburgh managed to rise from the ashes (of the steel mills) and renew itself.

It may even offer us insight on how Pittsburgh can once again build on its legacy.