An expansive look at portraiture, identity, and inequality as seen in Dorothea Lange’s iconic photographs   Dorothea Lange (1895–1965) aimed to make pictures that were, in her words, “important and useful.� Her decades-long investigation of how photography could articulate people’s core values and sense of self helped to expand our current understanding of portraiture and the meaning of documentary practice.   Lange’s sensitive portraits showing the common humanity of often marginalized people were pivotal to public understanding of vast social problems in the twentieth century. Compassion guided Lange’s early portraits of Indigenous people in Arizona and New Mexico from the 1920s and 1930s, as well as her depictions of striking workers, migrant farmers, rural African Americans, Japanese Americans in internment camps, and the people she met while traveling in Europe, Asia, and Latin America.   Drawing on new research, the authors look at Lange’s roots in studio portraiture and demonstrate how her influential and widely seen photographs addressed issues of identity as well as social, economic, and racial inequalities—topics that remain as relevant for our times as they were for hers. Published in association with the National Gallery of Art, Washington Exhibition Schedule:   National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC (November 5, 2023–March 31, 2024)  

A new, revolutionary history of photography from a stellar team of writers and thinkers that challenges all existing narratives by focusing on the complex collaborations between photographer and subject. Led by five of the great thinkers and practitioners in photography, and including texts by over 100 writers, critics and academics, this groundbreaking publication presents a potential history of photography explored through the lens of collaboration, challenging the dominant narratives around photographic history and authorship. With more than 1,000 photographs, it breaks apart photography’s ‘single creator’ tradition by bringing to light tangible traces of collaboration – the various relationships, exchanges and interactions that occur between all participants in the making of any photograph. This collaboration takes different forms, including coercion and cooperation, friendship and exploitation, and expresses shared interests as well as competition, rivalry or antagonistic partnership. The conditions of collaboration are explored through 100 photography ‘projects’, divided into eight thematic chapters including ‘The Photographed Subject’, ‘The Author’ and ‘Potentializing Violence’. The result of years of research, Collaboration addresses key issues of gender, race and societal hierarchies and divisions and their role in forging identity and conformity. The photographs from each project are presented non-hierarchically alongside quotes, testimonies, and short texts by guest contributors. These networks of texts and images offer perspectives on a vast array of photographic themes, from Araki’s portraits of women to archival files from the Spanish Civil War. Each chapter is introduced by the editors, who provide the keys to understanding and decoding the complex politics of seeing.

July 25, 1946. In Walton County, Georgia, a mob of white men commit one of the most heinous racial crimes in America's history: the shotgun murder of four black sharecroppers -- two men and two women -- at Moore's Ford Bridge. "Fire in a Canebrake, " the term locals used to describe the sound of the fatal gunshots, is the story of our nation's last mass lynching on record. More than a half century later, the lynchers' identities still remain unknown.Drawing from interviews, archival sources, and uncensored FBI reports, acclaimed journalist and author Laura Wexler takes readers deep into the heart of Walton County, bringing to life the characters who inhabited that infamous landscape -- from sheriffs to white supremacists to the victims themselves -- including a white man who claims to have been a secret witness to the crime. By turns a powerful historical document, a murder mystery, and a cautionary tale, "Fire in a Canebrake" ignites a powerful contemplation on race, humanity, history, and the epic struggle for truth.

Laura Wexler presents an incisive analysis of how the first American female photojournalists contributed to a ""doctrine vision"" that reinforced the imperialism and racism of America around the dawn of the 20th century. These women photographers, white and middle class, constructed images of war disguised as peace through a mechanism Wexler calls the ""averted eye"", which had its origins in the private domain of family photography. Wexler examines the work of Frances Benjamin Johnston, Gertrude Kasebier, Alice Austen, the Gerhard sisters and Jessie Tarbox Beals. The book includes over 150 photographs taken between 1898 and 1904, such as photos Johnston took aboard Admiral Dewey's flagship as it returned home from conquering Manila, Austen's photos of immigrants at Ellis Island, and Beal's images of the St Louis World's Fair of 1904. In a groundbreaking approach to the study of photography, Wexler raises up these images as ""texts"" to be analyzed alongside other texts of the period for what they say about the discourses of power. This study is relevant not only to the fields of history of photography and gender studies, but also to our growing understanding of US imperialism during this period.

Collective insights from a diverse and global group of contemporary artists whose works challenge traditional representations of motherhood Picturing Motherhood Now brings together work by a range of contemporary artists who reimagine the possibilities for representing motherhood. Drawing on a range of feminisms, this exhibition catalogue challenges familiar archetypes of motherhood, construing motherhood as a multivalent term. The artists in the catalogue see motherhood as a lens through which to examine contemporary social issues. While focusing on art made in the past two decades, the catalogue also integrates work by significant pioneers, narrating an intergenerational and evolving story. This richly illustrated volume features painting, sculpture, photography, and installations by 30 contemporary artists, including Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Latoya Ruby Frazier, Titus Kaphar, and Aliza Nisenbaum, alongside works by feminist pioneers who inspired them, such as Louise Bourgeois, Alice Neel, and Betye Saar. Scholarly essays examine dimensions of matrilineage and contemporary art, enlarging our understanding of motherhood in today's culture. The catalogue also includes a roundtable conversation among artists and thinkers, animating the themes of the exhibition through a dynamic exchange. Distributed for the Cleveland Museum of Art Exhibition Schedule: Cleveland Museum of Art (October 16, 2021-March 13, 2022)