New Exhibits - The Art of the Boat: Photographs by Morris Rosenfeld & Sons

The Art of the Boat - Photographs by Morris Rosenfeld & Sons Photographs by Morris Rosenfeld & Sons
October 26, 2007 – April 27, 2008

Magic Carpet, 1966 »
(© Mystic Seaport, Rosenfeld Collection,
Mystic, CT, #182410F)

On a River of Silk, 1938 »
(© Mystic Seaport, Rosenfeld Collection,
Mystic, CT, #89930F)

Flying Spinnakers, 1938 »
(© Mystic Seaport, Rosenfeld Collection,
Mystic, CT, #88393F)

M-Boats, 1935 »
(© Mystic Seaport, Rosenfeld Collection,
Mystic, CT, #71346F)

The Rosenfeld Family: David, Morris,
Stanley and William Rosenfeld, 1954 »
(© Mystic Seaport, Rosenfeld Collection,
Mystic, CT, #144381F)

Cornell Crew, 1930 »
(© Mystic Seaport, Rosenfeld Collection,
Mystic, CT, #40456F)

Exhibit of Vintage Yachting Photographs from Renowned Rosenfeld Collection

Independence Seaport Museum First Venue to Host Traveling Exhibit

The Art of the Boat: Photographs by Morris Rosenfeld & Sons is an exhibit of nautical photographs that powerfully captures the enigmatic fusion of man, boat, and the sea.

Independence Seaport Museum is the first venue to exhibit The Art of the Boat outside of Mystic Seaport, where the Rosenfeld Collection is housed. At nearly one million photographs, it is the largest single collection of maritime photography in the world.

The Art of the Boat includes 40 yachting, powerboat, racing, and leisure boating images, all luminous platinum palladium prints.

They are visually stunning and tantalizingly titled – "On a River of Silk," three hydroplanes floating on glistening water with fluffy ribbons of cotton candy wakes; "Magic Carpet," an image of Zen simplicity featuring a lone boat on a glassine sea; and, perhaps the most famous Rosenfeld photograph, "Flying Spinnakers," a dramatic confluence of white billowing sails and white-tipped waves.

A peer of photographers Edward Steichen, Alfred Stieglitz, Ansel Adams, and Margaret Bourke-White, Morris Rosenfeld (1885-1968) won a photography contest at age 13 for a picture he snapped of a three-masted ship near the Brooklyn Bridge.

He used the $5 prize to buy his first camera and a career was launched.

Rosenfeld eventually opened his own studio, and he and his staff specialized in industrial, advertising, architectural, research, and news photography. However, his first love always remained marine photography and, whenever possible, Rosenfeld hopped in his chase boat, Foto, to cover speedboat and sailing races, particularly the America's Cup.

"My father had a deep-rooted appreciation of the sea, an innate artistic eye, and a comprehensive knowledge of photography," Stanley Rosenfeld (1913-2002) wrote in the introduction to the book, A Century Under Sail. "The yachts in his photographs always looked their best, as it was against his nature to take an unflattering photograph of a boat."

All three Rosenfeld sons – Stanley, David, and William – were involved in the nautical photography business at one time or another, sometimes driving the chase boat, sometimes taking the photographs, sometimes working in the darkroom. However, only Stanley followed in his father's footsteps to become a celebrated maritime photographer in his own right.

The Rosenfelds defined maritime photography in the first half of the 1900s and they, zipping about the water in Foto to achieve impossibly precarious shooting positions, were a fixture at boat races up and down the East Coast.

The Art of the Boat will also feature Morris Rosenfeld's camera.

Prints, calendars, cards and other memorabilia featuring images from The Art of the Boat, will be available for purchase in the Museum gift shop.

The Rosenfeld exhibit is free with general admission » or membership ».

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