Photography and the American South since 1845

The first major photography exhibition from the South in over 25 years, A Long Arc: Photography and the American South Since 1845will be presented at Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond from October 5, 2024 to January 26. 2025.

A Long Arc includes more than 175 years of photography from a wide swath of the American South – from Maryland to Florida, Arkansas to Texas, and places in between. Visitors to the expansive exhibit will experience daily life and ordinary places captured in evocative photos that contemplate the region’s central role in shaping American history and identity. The exhibition also examines the crucial impact of the South on the development of photography.

“The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts is delighted to present A Long Arc: Photography and the American South Since 1845a stunning exhibition of powerful images of our shared Southern and American history, by many of this country’s greatest photographers,” said Museum Director and CEO Alex Nyerges. “The exhibition also includes a number of captivating images of Richmond and the Commonwealth from the museum’s ever-growing photography collection. »

A Long Arc: Photography and the American South Since 1845 is organized by the High Museum of Art (Atlanta, Georgia) and co-curated by Gregory Harris, Donald and Marilyn Keough Family Curator of Photography at the High Museum of Art, and Dr. Sarah Kennel, Curator of Photography Aaron Siskind and director of the Raysor Center for Works on Paper at the VMFA.

« A Long Arc takes into account the region’s fraught history, American identity and culture as a whole, asking us to consider the history of American photography with the South as its focal point,” said Dr. Kennel. “The exhibition examines how photographers from the 19th century to the present have articulated the distinct and evolving character of the people, landscapes, and culture of the South.”

More than 180 works of historical and contemporary photography are presented in A Long Arc, which includes many works from the VMFA permanent collection.

Photographic works by more than 120 artists are presented in A Long Arc: Photography and the American South Since 1845dont George N. Barnard, William Eggleston, Mitch Epstein, Walker Evans, Robert Frank, Emmet Gowin, Dorothea Lange, Baldwin Lee, Tommy Kha, Sally Mann, Ralph Eugene Meatyard, Gordon Parks, P.H. Polk, RaMell Ross et Carrie Mae Weems, entre autres.

A Long Arc: Photography and the American South since 1845
from October 5, 2024 to January 26, 2025
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
200 N Arthur Ashe Blvd,
Richmond, VA 23220
www.VMFA.museum