Open City

Taking its title from Roberto Rossellini’s stark neo-realist film of 1945, this exhibition charts the history of development of the street photograph from the 1950s on.

Its starting point is the raw and edgy photographs produced by Robert Frank, Lee Friedlander, William Klein, and Garry Winogrand, who were instrumental in the development of a radical, new approach to documentary photography. For these and other artists, including Daido Moriyama, Nobuyoshi Araki, Nigel Henderson, and William Eggleston, the street fascinates as a theater of human activity.

"Open City" reflects the diversity of work that the street has inspired, ranging from Terence Donovan’s advertising and fashion photography to Susan Meiselas’s photographs of war-torn areas of Nicaragua, and Raghubir Singh’s vibrant and colorful images of his native India. The exhibition concludes with works from the 1980s and 1990s by photographers who, influenced by the conceptual art of preceding decades, have turned the camera on itself, rethinking the traditions of the street genre and of the photographic apparatus. Jeff Wall, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Nikki S. Lee, Catherine Opie, Allan Sekula, Beat Streuli, Thomas Struth and Wolfgang Tillmans are representative of this newer generation of artists.

Cocurated by Hirshhorn Chief Curator Kerry Brougher, and Russell Ferguson, Chief Curator of the UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, the exhibition was organized and toured by the Museum of Modern Art Oxford with kind support from The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, The John S. Cohen Foundation, Pro Helvetia, and the Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations, Stuttgart.

Additional funding for the Hirshhorn presentation has been provided in part by the Canadian Embassy, The Japan Foundation, Pro Helvetia, and the Embassy of Switzerland, Cultural Fund. The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (Metro) is the promotional partner for the Washington, D.C., showing of this exhibition.

In addition to a free illustrated brochure, a 205-page illustrated catalog with essays by Russell Ferguson and Kerry Brougher exploring the historical roots of street photography and the way in which artists have continued the tradition.

Pressetext

Open City: Street Photographs since 1950
Kuratoren: Kerry Brougher, Russell Ferguson

mit Robert Frank, Lee Friedlander, William Klein, Garry Winogrand, Daido Moriyama, Nobuyoshi Araki, Nigel Henderson, William Eggleston, Terence Donovan, Susan Meiselas, Raghubir Singh, Jeff Wall, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Nikki S. Lee, Catherine Opie, Allan Sekula, Beat Streuli, Thomas Struth, Wolfgang Tillmans