1/25/20 - 12/31/20

Horace Ballard, Curator of American Art

Landmarks explores how human beings have used photo processes to orient and define themselves in relation to the natural and built environment. This survey exhibition reaffirms the museum’s commitment to collecting, exhibiting, and teaching with works that provoke conversation and research on the most important questions of our time. 

The works on view speak to photographers’ ongoing interests in Enlightenment-era notions of the picturesque, the evolution of documentary photography, the modern realities of war and mass incarceration, and evidence of climate change. Images range from the early iconic photographs of Ansel Adams, Ana Mendieta, and Alfred Stieglitz, to NASA images, to important works in the oeuvre of LaToya Ruby Frazier, Dionisio Gonzalez, and Gregory Crewdson. In addition to works drawn from the museum’s robust historic holdings and recent acquisitions, the exhibition includes landmark photographs from the respective collections of Harvey ’61 & Madeleine Plonsker (P’86, GP’21) and Wally ’61 & Roz Bernheimer (P’93,’90,’86, GP’15).

View our accompanying publication: WCMA_FieldNotes_Landmarks2020_final.

Watch a video tour with Curator of American Art Horace Ballard.

Explore the global locations of photographs in the exhibition with a new interactive tool Landmarks: A Digital Map.

Featured Works