Daring Collaborations: Doris Ulmann and the Making of Modern Dance

Doris Ulmann worked with a large-format camera to capture people's unique personalities on glass-plate negatives. She summarized her quiet and methodical photographic method in stating, “whenever I am working on a portrait, I try to know the individuality or real character of my sitter and, by understanding him, succeed in making him think of the things of vital interest to him.” Between 1919 and 1933, her photography took an unexpected turn when she became fascinated with new forms of dance performed in New York City. Ulmann's portraits of Michio Ito, Ruth St. Denis, Angna Enters, and an Isadora Duncan-inspired dance company stand out from her still studies of Appalachian and Gullah-Geechee “types.” Anomalous in her oeuvre, Ulmann’s photographs of dancers offer a rare record of this formative moment in the invention of modern dance. This exhibition was developed in dialogue with Associate Professor of Arts Administration Jill Schinberg.  
 

Image caption: Doris Ulmann, Angna Enters, circa 1931, gelatin silver print. Collection of the UK Art Museum, purchase: The Robert C. May Photography Fund.