Albertina Museum, Vienna
August 2021
August 24–November 28, 2021
American Photography presents an overview of the development of American photography between the 1930s and the 2000s. Displaying works by thirty-three artists, including Diane Arbus and William Eggleston, the exhibition introduces the essential currents that once revolutionized the canon of classic motifs and photographic practices. The effects of this have reached far beyond the country’s borders to the present day.
The formally austere photographs of Diane Arbus depict both social outsiders and ordinary people. Whether Arbus lends visibility to the nature of her models by means of empathy and sensitivity or stages them voyeuristically as the socially “other” is the subject of an ongoing discussion. What speaks in favor of the first aspect is that Arbus was friends with some of those portrayed and depicted them over longer periods of time, but also that the protagonists were aware of the photographer’s presence and that they played to the gallery to a certain extent.
The exhibition comprises examples from the Albertina’s rich photographic holdings. Since the foundation of its Department of Photography in 1999, the Albertina has succeeded in compiling one of the most prominent collections of American photography around the globe.
Press Release