Museum of Modern Art. Photography at the Museum of Modern Art. Bulletin Vol. 19, No. 4, 1952.

Essay by Edward Steichen. Photographs from recent exhibitions by Robert Frank (cover); Henri Le Secq; Louis Faurer; Homer Page; Alfred Stieglitz; Eugene Atget; Cartier-Bresson; Brassai; Robert Doisneau; Bill Brandt; Edward Weston; Irving Penn; Walker Evans; Arnold Newman; Alfred Eisenstaedt; Helen Levitt; Frederick Sommer; Tosh Matsumoto; Herbert Matter; Harry Callahan; Gyorgy Kepes; Aaron Siskind; Lotte Jacobi; Charles Eames; W. Eugene Smith; Margaret Bourke-White; Marion Palfi; Jacob Riis; Hary Batz; Sam Caldwell; David Douglas Duncan; Wayne Miller, Julia Margaret Cameron; and Robert Capa. Stapled wraps, 24 pages including covers. From the estate of photographer Sol Libsohn, though unmarked. Good plus with some crimps.  Sold with archival polyester sleeve.  Summary:

Photography at the Museum of Modern Art (Museum of Modern Art Bulletin, Vol. XIX, No. 4, 1952) is a historic institutional publication edited and compiled by legendary photographer and curator Edward Steichen. The 24-page bulletin serves as a landmark retrospective manifesto, mapping the administrative history, aesthetic philosophy, and growing permanent collection of MoMA’s Department of Photography since its formal founding in 1940.

The publication is highly regarded for its iconic cover featuring Street Line, New York (34th Street), a starkly poetic, graphic photograph by a then-emerging 27-year-old Robert Frank.

Core Themes & Content

• Steichen's Vision of the Medium: The core text serves as an ideological blueprint written by Steichen, outlining his expansive curatorial philosophy. He argues fiercely for photography's recognition as a major fine art and a vital humanistic visual language, setting the baseline for the massive, populist exhibitions he would mount throughout the 1950s.

• The Blueprint for Creative Photography: The bulletin catalogues MoMA's aggressive efforts to champion a distinct aesthetic transition in post-war photography. It highlights the work of a raw, vanguard generation of artists who bypassed sterile, technical commercialism in favor of subjective, highly stylized interpretations of daily life.

• Robert Frank's Breakthrough: The choice of Robert Frank's imagery for the cover marks an institutional coronation. The bulletin features Frank's distinct style—framing him as a "poet with a camera" who captures everyday, transient moments of city isolation. The publication of this image presaged Frank's seminal masterwork Black White and Things and his later era-defining book The Americans.

• Archival and Curatorial History: The pages provide a structural inventory of MoMA's photographic milestones up to 1952. It chronicles the more than 75 temporary exhibitions coordinated under the department's umbrella, details key collection acquisitions, and formally logs the institutional support of photography pioneers like Beaumont Newhall and Alfred H. Barr, Jr.

The Takeaway: This 1952 bulletin is a critical monument in the history of photographic curation. By pairing Steichen's institutional authority with Robert Frank's raw, uncompromising street lens on the cover, the publication documents the precise moment the American museum establishment embraced modern, subjective photojournalism as the definitive visual language of the post-war era.