Fabricated to Be Photographed. November 16 - December 30, 1979.

San Francisco Museum of Art, 1979. Essay by Van Deren Coke. Illustrated wraps, 36 pages, VG+ with a few crimps on covers. Exhibition catalog for an influential show that traveled to three other venues after SFMoMA. Photographers illustrated: Georgy Kepes; Florence Henri; Francis Bruguiere; Man Ray; Frederick Sommer; Walter Peterhans; Edward Weston; Ellen Brooks; James Casebere; Stephen Collins; Robert Cumming (including covers); Philip Galgiani; Leslie R. Krims (aka Les Krims); John Pfahl; Donald Rodan; Victor Schrager; and Carl Toth. Biographical information on the photographers and exhibition checklist of 112 works included.  Summary:

Fabricated to Be Photographed: November 16 – December 30, 1979 (1979), published by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), is a 36-page exhibition catalogue authored and curated by influential photography historian Van Deren Coke.

Key Details & Summary

• Scope & Concept: Accompanied a landmark exhibition examining the widespread turn toward staged, constructed, and studio-fabricated imagery in late-1970s contemporary art, marking a pivotal departure from traditional street and documentary photography.

• Curator & Critical Essay: Features an essay by Van Deren Coke that traces the historical lineage of artificial scene creation—connecting early 20th-century avant-garde innovators like Man Ray, Francis Bruguière, Florence Henri, and György Kepes to contemporary 1970s conceptual photographers.

• Featured Artists & Checklist: Includes a comprehensive checklist of 112 works alongside illustrations from prominent contemporary artists, including Robert Cumming, James Casebere, Les Krims, John Pfahl, Victor Schrager, Carl Toth, Ellen Brooks, Philip Galgiani, and Donald Rodan.

• Exhibition Impact: Traveled to several major art venues following its SFMOMA debut, cementing "constructed" or "staged" photography as a defining movement that shaped the trajectory of postmodern visual culture throughout the 1980s.

• Van Deren Coke (1921–2004) was an influential American photographer, art historian, museum curator, and educator who played a pioneering role in establishing photography as an academic art discipline and museum staple. Born in Lexington, Kentucky, Coke earned a degree in history from the University of Kentucky before serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II, during which he honed his photography skills. He later studied fine arts at Indiana University and earned an M.F.A. from the University of Iowa, balancing his own creative practice—which embraced modernist abstraction and surrealism—with a distinguished career as a museum director and curator. Coke founded the photography department at Arizona State University, directed the University of New Mexico Art Museum, and served as the founding director of the International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House before becoming the chief curator of photography at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) in 1979. A prolific scholar, he authored several ground-breaking books, including The Painter and the Photograph: From Delacroix to Warhol (1964), leaving an indelible mark on how photography is evaluated, taught, and collected within contemporary art.