Picturing American Identity

Susan Sontag observed that photographs “do not seem to be statements about the world so much as pieces of it, miniatures of reality that anyone can make or acquire.” The way they are framed, and the information that is retained and excluded, helps photographs create a partial reality. Although sometimes problematic, this also allows us as viewers to build completed narratives and interpretations surrounding the events of the photograph to create different, sometimes contradictory wholes.

This exhibition undertakes a similar task of reinterpretation. Ranging from Robert Frank’s honest exploration about the exploitation of Puerto Rico by the American government to Jerome Liebling’s subtle critique of the fact that American brands like Coca Cola have historically targeted their marketing campaign toward a specific social group, this selection of black and white photographs from 1940 to 1960 claim to reveal the delicate, sometimes questionable group of ideas that compose American cultural identity.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.