A starburst is a phenomenon where a galaxy undergoes a very rapid and intense period of star formation. It also titles one of the most influential photo exhibitions of the year.

STARBURST: Color Photography in America 1970 – 1980 was curated this year by Kevin Moore and I caught the show two weeks ago at the Princeton University Art Museum. An amazing facility with originals by Warhol and Basquiat, to name a few, the museum was currently hosting a re-production of Steven Shore’s American Surfaces as well as the Starburst exhibition. The collection was brilliant and I was electrified by the presence of much of my favorite works and photographers. New Color embodied visual and conceptual exploration that pushed the seemingly transparency of our medium, and the exhibition catalog insightfully identifies the build-up to and emergence of Post-Chromatic shock and the Neo-Objectivism of the 1990′s and early 2000′s. These trends and ideologies continue to play out today. The book provides an insightful link between the humanistic vocabulary of mid-century American photographs and contemporary photography.

I highly recommend this exhibition and catalog to pretty much anyone even mildly interested in contemporary photography. It provides an excellent foundation for the artistic, social, and political events that have brought us contemporary photography. You can learn more about the exhibition here.

Enjoy Peoples!