The Discerning Eye: Creating Value in the 1970s American Market for Photographs

The 1970s “photo boom” was a critical period in the history of photography, one that irrevocably cemented the medium’s status in the art and museum worlds, its legitimacy as a subject of academic study, and its desirability as an object of both institutional and private collections. And yet, thorough investigations of this pivotal decade have rarely been attempted, and are most often couched within larger surveys of photography’s history and its acceptance as an art form. Even more conspicuously absent are dedicated studies of the photography market, which emerged in the late 1960s, developed over the course of the 1970s, and which has continued to influence the circulation, study, and exhibition of photographs in the decades since. This dissertation addresses this absence by systematically examining four key aspects of the 1970s photography market: the market’s previously overlooked relationship to the print revival of the 1950s and 1960s, and its attendant debates about “original” prints; the evolution and significance of the “vintage print” as a core marketing concept; the professionalization of photograph conservation, along with early examples of photographic forgery; and the popularization and standardization of limited edition prints and portfolios, especially as vehicles for selling, collecting, and investing in photography. This dissertation focuses on developments in the United States and England from 1969 to 1980, bookended by the opening of New York’s Witkin Gallery and the founding of the Association of International Photography Art Dealers (AIPAD). It also, however, considers historical antecedents and developments across the first half of the twentieth century, as well as the photo boom’s reverberations through the present day. This project takes as its most important source material a variety of often neglected texts from the period of the photo boom, including auction and dealer catalogues, collecting guides, and articles in both the popular and specialist press. It also makes ample use of archival resources, recent secondary literature, and dozens of new interviews with important participants in the 1970s photo boom. Such resources, considered as a whole, offer vivid first-hand access to this crucial moment in photography’s recent history.Release after 05/11/202

Building & real estate piece profiling the University of Maine\u27s Construction M

Building & real estate piece profiling the University of Maine\u27s Construction Management Technology (CMT) program, which began in 1972 as a two-year associates degree in civil engineering technology and now offers students a four-year curriculum in construction management and business skills. About 100 students are enrolled in the program for the upcoming academic year, and graduates are much in demand and command high starting pay. The program, one of only a few of is kind in the country, is coordinated by Knud Hermansen,, who is a trained engineer and lawyer. With references to Mark Bancroft, a 1994 graduate, who is now president of Bancroft Contracting in South Paris, and has hired three other program graduates, and to Karl Ward, a 1993 graduate, who is a partner and vice-president a Nickerson & O\u27Day, a Brewer-based construction firm

Bowdoin College graduates Chris Brown and Brett Wickard founded the 10-store loc

Bowdoin College graduates Chris Brown and Brett Wickard founded the 10-store local music retailer Bull Moose Music, and they manage to stay competitive by being flexible, closely tracking customers\u27 buying preferences, and filling a niche as the cheapest music store in town. The company is responsible for 30 percent of all music sales in the Greater Portland area. Wickard opened the first store in Brunswick while he was still a junior at Bowdoin. A new warehouse facility in Scarborough will include a retail operation, at a time when the music retailing industry is struggling because of CD burning, Web downloads, and other methods of obtaining music. Bull Moose Music has achieved double-digit annual sales and profit growth in every year but one since 1989, when the first no-frills store opened