Currently showing at Nottingham Contemporary, States of America: Photography from the Civil Rights Movement to the Reagan Era is the centre’s first group exhibition dedicated to photography, and it’s a whopper.
Lee Friedlander, Newark, NJ, 1962, gelatin-silver print. © Lee Friedlander, courtesy of Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco and Wilson Centre for Photography.
Bringing together almost 250 works from the collection of the Wilson Centre for Photography, including those from iconic names like Stephen Shore, Mark Cohen, Bruce Davidson, Bill Owens, Joseph Szabo and Diane Arbus — the exhibition spans three decades from the 1960s to late ’80s, and explores tectonic shifts in American society and politics; from its crumbling city centres and the dramatic decline of industry, to suburban sprawl and the onset of mass advertising.
Fuelled by an emotive and visually arresting period in the history of the United States, the work of these pioneering photographers represents a seminal moment in art history. Focussing on this groundbreaking generation of photographers, who experimented with innovative approaches to documentary photography and whose contribution to the discipline may never be repeated, States of America — one of the UK’s largest overviews of North American photography in recent years — continues at Nottingham Contemporary until 26 November.
William Eggleston, Las Vegas, (yellow shirt guy at pinball machine), 1965-68, dye-transfer print. © Eggleston Artistic Trust.
Courtesy David Zwirner, New York/London and Wilson Centre for Photography
William Eggleston, Las Vegas (woman walking on sidewalk), 1965-68, dye-transfer print. © Eggleston Artistic Trust. Courtesy David Zwirner, New York/London and Wilson Centre for Photography.
William Eggleston, Memphis, Los Alamos series, 1965–68, dye-transfer print. © Eggleston Artistic Trust. Courtesy David Zwirner, New York/London and Wilson Centre for Photography.
Stephen Shore, Ginger Shore, Causeway Inn, Tampa, Florida, November 17, 1977, 1977/2011, C-print. © Stephen Shore.
Courtesy 303 Gallery, New York, Sprüth Magers and Wilson Centre for Photography
Lee Friedlander, New York City, 1966, gelatin-silver print. © Lee Friedlander, courtesy of Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco and Wilson Centre for Photography.
Dawoud Bey, A Woman with Hanging Overalls, 1978/1979, gelatin-silver print. © Dawoud Bey, courtesy of Stephen Daiter Gallery.
Mark Cohen, Young Girl at Beach, 1977, dye-transfer print. © Mark Cohen, courtesy of Wilson Centre for Photography.
Bill Owens, “I wanted Christina to learn some responsibility for cleaning her room, but it didn’t work”, c 1973, gelatin-silver print. © Bill Owens, courtesy of Wilson Centre for Photography.
Mark Cohen, Kid looking over at Camera, 1972, gelatin-silver print. © Mark Cohen, courtesy of Wilson Centre for Photography.
