Giant Camera, Atlantic City
1973-1978, printed 1994
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
gelatin silver print
Dimensions
image: 21 × 29.21 cm (8 1/4 × 11 1/2 in.) sheet: 27.94 × 35.56 cm (11 × 14 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Corcoran Collection (Gift of Mr. Isidore and Mrs. Dorothy (Steinberg) Kavka and Museum Purchase)
Accession Number
2015.19.4539
Art Historical Context
In the vibrant, nostalgic lens of Richard Gordon's *Giant Camera, Atlantic City* (1973–1978, printed 1994 visitors encounter a playful snapshot of mid-20th-century roadside Americana. Captured during the era when Atlantic City's boardwalk buzzed with quirky attractions luring tourists, this gelatin silver print showcases an enormous camera sculpture—a towering emblem of the novelty architecture that dotted highways and amusement strips across the U.S. Gordon, a chronicler of oversized signs and vernacular wonders, immortalizes these fleeting symbols of pop culture optimism, evoking a time befo...
About the Artist
Richard Gordon
Richard Gordon (1945–2012) was a self-taught American photographer born in Chicago, Illinois. He studied political science at the University of Chicago from 1963 to 1967 but discovered photography in 1965 while working at a local studio.) Early in his career, Robert Frank critiqued his work, praising his passion for the medium, and Gordon frequently paid homage to influences like Eugène Atget, Wal...