As I stood in the basement of the Visual Arts Center watching Mr. Krupsaw post several announcements of his show, a student in the still photography course gasped as he asked, "Is that Warren Krupsaw himself putting up the sign?" At first I thought the student, with turtle-neck sweater and silver-rimmed glasses, was scoffing. But it soon became clear that his remark only reflected the emergence of a Harvard photographic underground, as one of its sub-culture heroes prepared a major exhibition.
Photographers have always lacked an adequate forum: Adams House's annual show, though expertly run, is sparsely attended, while those of Quincy and Leverett are abysmally organized. Even so, the anonymous photographers have their own highly-differentiated watering-holes:
* A large group centers around the VAC; these, for the most part, are newcomers to the scene. They are not quite aware yet of the opportunities for publishing, exhibiting, and landing lucrative assignments. Many aren't interested.
* If they aren't, the boys at the Harvard News Office are. Probably the most dependable and least exciting group, the News Office crew has little interest in the artistic projects of the Corbu crowd. They publish in the Alumni Bulletin and sometimes earn four figure salaries.
* At the CRIMSON, photographers have the best opportunity for their works to be seen by a college audience, but they usually stick close to the photo-journalism dictated by the news page. Despite finding inferior reproduction of their work on newsprint and being low men on the editorial totem poll, photographers seem satisfied with being on hand for big news events and being tapped by national media for prints.
* The Yearbook attracts several score serious amateurs who don't put in the time and effort required by other groups. A typical yearbook photographer is over-equipped, more arty than artistic, more bored-wealthy than committed. Given the lax deadlines of the yearbook and the variety of its pages, yearbook work tends to lack discipline.
Such brief sketches, of course, are only caricatures. For example, Donal Holway of the CRIMSON, Richard Bertocci of the News Office, and Hugh Blackmer of the Yearbook are fine photographers in almost any situation. Warren Krupsaw is another, and his exhibit has the fullness and variety I expected.
Intelligently organized and wonderfully well illuminated, the photographs range from a competent picture story of a PBH State Hospital ward to a series of impressive nature studies taken in Yosemite National Park.
Mr. Krupsaw's portraits are especially well-executed; they have a serenity of mood and richness of tonality which reflect a well-trained eye and an expert craftsmanship, as in studies of Dr. Swoboda and Ansel Adams.
Probably the best thing about "100 Works" is its sheer size, its revelation of the realms of photography and skills of the photographer. In addition to stunning photographs of a pole vaulter, an HRO rehearsal, and other Harvardiana, Mr. Krupsaw has included intriguing color photograms (made without a camera directly on photographic paper), texture and multiple exposure projects, a series on the Washington Peace March, several distinguished still lifes, and an exciting moment of the sycamore riots. A very promising artist, Mr. Krupsaw has produced a solid and substantial show.
