The Photographic Activity of Postmodernism
Citation
Crimp, Douglas. “The Photographic Activity of Postmodernism.” October 15 (Winter 1980): 91–101.
Relevance
Crimp’s follow-up to his foundational “Pictures” essay (October 8, 1979 — see src-crimp-1979-pictures), here explicitly naming the photographic practices of the Pictures Generation artists as a form of postmodern activity that critiques the original (Romantic) assumptions of photography — including its documentary authority and humanist expressivism. The essay theorizes appropriation photography (Sherrie Levine, Richard Prince, Cindy Sherman) as a practice that exposes the impossibility of photographic originality and authenticity. This directly undermines the theoretical foundations of exhibitions like The Family of Man, which depended on precisely those assumptions: the authenticity of the photographic document and the expressive truth of the humanist photograph.
October is named in CREDIBILITY.md as a Tier-2 peer-reviewed journal.
Key excerpts / pages
- Access status (2026-04-30): JSTOR URL
https://www.jstor.org/stable/778439— attempted; returned HTTP 403. Full text NOT retrieved. Body text NOT consulted in this round. - Volume, issue, and page range (October vol. 15, Winter 1980, pp. 91–101) confirmed from Wikipedia article on Douglas Crimp (fetched 2026-04-30): “The Photographic Activity of Postmodernism,” October, vol. 15 (Winter 1980), pp. 91–101. The Wikipedia article explicitly cites these details, making this the most reliable non-primary source confirmation available in this session.
- No verbatim passage quoted from a primary fetch in this round.
Notes
- Cross-reference to
src-crimp-1979-pictures(earlier companion essay in October 8). The two essays together form Crimp’s theoretical statement on the Pictures Generation. - Cross-reference to
src-phillips-1982-judgment-seat(Phillips’s MoMA institutional critique, two years later in the same journal). Cross-reference tosrc-krauss-1985-originality-avant-garde(Krauss’s companion theoretical project). - Cross-reference to
src-sandeen-1995(anchor for Family of Man reception history): the Crimp essay is part of the theoretical tradition that Sandeen situates against humanist photography. - The Wikipedia confirmation of volume, issue, and page range for this article is the strongest non-primary bibliographic confirmation available in this session (sourced from Wikipedia’s article on Douglas Crimp, fetched 2026-04-30). Wikipedia is used here as a pointer to primary bibliographic facts, consistent with
CREDIBILITY.md: “Wikipedia is allowed only as a pointer to cited primary/secondary sources.” verified: false: JSTOR returned 403; body text NOT consulted. Volume, issue, and page range confirmed from Wikipedia (fetched 2026-04-30); a JSTOR or MIT Press access in a future session should verify the article text.