Exhibition

Less than 50 years ago, few opportunities existed to showcase fine-art photography. Not satisfied with showing his photography to a limited audience, Ralph Gibson created his own publishing outlet, Lustrum Press. To highlight this seminal period in photographic history, the exhibition Ralph Gibson and Lustrum Press, 1970 – 1984 will be on view.

This exhibition examines national identity as seen by a keen observer, Lee Friedlander. The theme of the “American monument” pervades this decades-long investigation of the social landscape—a photographic genre he formulated in the late 1960s and subsequently refined to a height of finesse. Taking frequent cross-country car trips with his family, Friedlander observed monuments of various sorts cropping up in photographs he took along the way. He began to pursue the theme in earnest.