Photography in the Fine Arts. Museum Directors' Selections for the 1965 New York World’s Fair Exhibition by Ivan Dmitri.

PFA, 1965. Catalog for New York World's Fair PFA exhibit at Kodak pavillion. Includes portraits by Yousuf Karsh and of Karsh by Ivan Dmitri, checklist of 139 pictures by 106 photographers, 20 other illustrations. Photographs by Karsh of directors of numerous museums as well as images by Arnold Newman, Bill Brandt, John Brook, Irving Penn, Elsbeth Siegrist, Zdenek Vozenilek, Walter Wissenbach, Elliott Erwitt, Brett Weston, W. Eugene Smith, Avedon and many others. A landmark photography exhibition of the 1960s. Stiff wraps, small scuffs and crimps on cover, otherwise fine.  Summary:

Photography in the Fine Arts: Museum Directors' Selections for the 1965 New York World’s Fair Exhibition is a specialized 41-page exhibition catalog compiled and edited by the prominent photographer Ivan Dmitri. Published in 1965 by the Photography in the Fine Arts (PFA) organization, the volume serves as the definitive institutional record of a landmark exhibition staged inside the Pavilion of the United States at the New York World’s Fair.

Core Content & Curatorial Structure

1. The Juror Panels and Institutional Validation

The unique conceptual blueprint of the publication centers on an elite selection process designed to evaluate the camera through the eyes of traditional art museum gatekeepers. Rather than relying on commercial photography editors, Ivan Dmitri convened a panel of directors from top-tier American art museums to serve as the jury. The catalog features portrait photographs of these prominent directors—captured by master portraitist Yousuf Karsh—alongside their commentary, documenting the precise historical moments when traditional fine-art institutions actively debated and validated photography's status as a high art form.

2. Exhibition Checklist and Masterwork Highlights

The core of the booklet functions as an authoritative catalog and checklist of the original photographic prints selected for the international World's Fair gallery installation. The exhibition brought together a diverse, cross-disciplinary roster of commercial, journalistic, and fine-art photographers. Featured works include:

• Avant-Garde Portraiture and Studio Realities: High-contrast, iconic human studies from legendary masters such as Richard Avedon and Yousuf Karsh.

• Form, Texture, and Landscape Studies: Pristine, large-format landscapes and structural abstractions by vanguard artists like Brett Weston and W. Eugene Smith.

• Documentary and Fine-Art Photography: Atmospheric compositions tracking the human condition, natural environments, and changing mid-century architecture.

3. A Manifesto for Global Cultural Presentation

The accompanying essays frame the entire exhibition as a critical diplomatic and cultural milestone. By mounting a museum-grade photography exhibition within the United States Pavilion at a global exposition, the project sought to introduce international audiences to the heights of American visual craft. The text details how the PFA initiative successfully dismantled the boundary between mechanical reproduction and classic fine-art disciplines, standardizing high-end print presentations and proving that master darkroom prints could stand as equal partners to painting and sculpture.

This 1965 catalog stands as an important institutional record of the alternative currents defining photography's acceptance into major museum collections. By utilizing the massive public stage of the New York World's Fair, Ivan Dmitri and his circle successfully generated mainstream validation for the medium, preserving a baseline record of 20th-century master photography for a global audience.