Exhibition Exploring History of Photography in America Opens at Smithsonian American Art Museum June 28
"A Democracy of Images: Photographs from the Smithsonian American Art Museum" showcases 113 photographs selected from the Smithsonian American Art Museum's permanent collection. The exhibition, which celebrates the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the museum's photography collection, examines photography's evolution in the United States from a documentary medium to a full-fledged artistic genre and showcases the numerous ways in which it has captured the American experience. The exhibition's title is inspired by American poet Walt Whitman's belief that photography provided America with a new, democratic art form that matched the spirit of the young country.
"A Democracy of Images: Photographs from the Smithsonian American Art Museum" is on view at the museum's main building in Washington, D.C., from June 28 through Jan. 5, 2014. The exhibition is organized by Merry Foresta, guest curator and independent consultant for the arts. Foresta was the museum's curator of photography from 1983 to 1999.
"The images in this exhibition represent some of the finest examples in the Smithsonian American Art Museum's collection of American photography, a pioneering collection begun more than 30 years ago," said Elizabeth Broun, The Margaret and Terry Stent Director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
"Photography has always been a quintessentially democratic activity, one that is rooted in the people and places of everyday life," said Foresta. "It allowed ordinary people to make and own images in a way that had not been possible before."
The images on display range from early daguerreotypes to contemporary digital works. The exhibition includes works by Edward S. Curtis, Timothy H. O'Sullivan, Bernice Abbott, Diane Arbus, Roy DeCarava, Walker Evans, Irving Penn and Trevor Paglen, among others, as well as vernacular works by unknown artists. A number of recent acquisitions are featured, including works by Ellen Carey, Mitch Epstein, Muriel Hasbun, Alfredo Jaar, Annie Leibovitz, Deborah Luster and Sally Mann.
