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The National Gallery of Art Presents The ’70s Lens: Reimagining Documentary Photography
visura blog
Mar 26, 2025
October 6, 2024 – April 6, 2025
West Building, Ground Floor — Gallery G29
Press Release—See how documentary photography transformed during the 1970s.The 1970s were a decade of uncertainty in the United States. Americans witnessed soaring inflation, energy crises, and the Watergate scandal, as well as protests about pressing issues such as the Vietnam War, women’s rights, gay liberation, and the environment. The country’s profound upheaval formed the backdrop for a revolution in documentary photography. Activism and a growing awareness and acceptance of diversity opened the field to underrepresented voices. At the same time, artistic experimentation fueled the reimagining of what documentary photographs could look like.
Featuring some 100 works by more than 80 artists, The ʼ70s Lens examines how photographers reinvented documentary practice during this radical shift in American life. Mikki Ferrill and Frank Espada used the camera to create complex portraits of their communities. Tseng Kwong Chi and Susan Hiller demonstrated photography’s role in developing performance and conceptual art. With pictures of suburban sprawl, artists like Lewis Baltz and Joe Deal challenged popular ideas of nature as pristine. And Michael Jang and Joanne Leonard made interior views examining domestic spaces' social landscape.
The questions these artists explored—about photography’s ethics, truth, and power—continue to be considered today.
The ’70s Lens: Reimagining Documentary Photography
National Gallery of Art
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