" (MoMA, p. 7) This conceptual shift is ongoing throughout the series of photos and photography-based works displayed in the exhibition. For instance, a great deal of emphasis in many of the early works in the exhibition is placed on the details and features of industrialization. A good example is the series from 1927 by Charles Sheeler, which offers a panorama of the more mechanized features of metropolitan life such as with Criss-Crossed Conveyors, River Rogue Plant, Ford Motor Company. Empty of human life by teeming with the productive output of human ingenuity, this photo captures a particular dynamic of the human experience during the era of industrialization.

By contrast, the slide-show organization of Helen Levitt's Projects: Helen Levitt in Color, shows the quirky randomness of metropolitan life in the post-industrial landscape of the early 1970s. The forty slide presentation employs the medium to preserve the idiosyncratic but mundane moments of human life that the camera previously ignored in favor of larger moments.

In addition to the content of this slide-show, the display techniques in use demonstrate the care and variance attended to the exhibition by the museum. Lighting and framing were critical...

Organized by Roxana Marcoci, curator of the Department of Photography, the exhibition belies the experience and care typical of the highly-reputable Museum of Modern Art.
Conclusion:

Ultimately, the exhibition is a success on a wide range of fronts. From the outset, the Shaping of New Visions is a success for its illustration of the intended message regarding the evolution and flexibility of the medium. Both from a historical-narrative standpoint and from a standpoint of artistic criticism, the selection and arrangement of photographs consistently delves into the question of what photography can be and do. But perhaps even more importantly and less explicit, the exhibition never fails to intrigue. The featured artists, the selected works and the themes probed by them amount to an assembly of thought-provoking moments both large and small in connection to the human experience.

Works Cited:

Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). (2012). The Shaping of New Visions: Photography, Film, Photobook. http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/1247.