Etherton Gallery is pleased to announce our new exhibition opening February 16, 2021, For the Record: Documentary Photographs from the Etherton Gallery Archive & Danny Lyon: Thirty Photographs, 1962-1980. For the Record is a presentation of documentary photographs from the 1930s to the present, selected from the gallery’s deep and varied holdings in this area. Also, on display -- images from Danny Lyon: Thirty Photographs, 1962-1980 -- a portfolio published by Etherton Gallery in collaboration with Danny Lyon. The show runs through May 22, 2021. Announcements about events and/or educational programming will be forthcoming.
For the Record highlights the broad range of styles and images that fall under the sometimes controversial category of documentary photography. At the most basic level, “documentary photography is a style of photography that provides a straightforward and accurate representation of people, places, objects and events, and is often used in reportage” – but in truth, it is so much more.
In For the Record, documentary ranges from government funded Depression era projects such as Berenice Abbott’s Changing New York, to 1970s critiques of suburban sprawl in the work of Henry Wessel, one of the photographers featured in the highly influential 1975 exhibition, New Topographics; from W. Eugene Smith’s 1950s extended LIFE Magazine photo essays like Country Doctor to Danny Lyon’s Bikeriders, Larry Clark’s Tulsa or Bruce Davidson’s seminal Brooklyn Gang series. Other photographers highlighted in the show include Diane Arbus, Alejandro Cartagena, Rodrigo Moya, Graciela Iturbide, Alex Webb, Steve McCurry, W. Eugene Smith, Garry Winogrand and many more.
“Putting these works in a gallery setting places the work at the center of a debate surrounding the power of photography, the photographer’s intentions and the relationship between photography and truth. For the Record raises questions of the documentary role of the photograph today and offers alternative ways of seeing, and understanding the events that shape our world.”
As Terry Etherton says, “A documentary photography exhibition provides an aesthetic and educational experience. This is a great opportunity to visit the gallery in-person or online and learn about the history of documentary photography through the fine examples in the gallery collection and it is also a lens through which they can view contemporary events.”
Drawn from Etherton Gallery’s vast collection, For the Record: Documentary Photographs from the Etherton Gallery Archive surveys documentary photography, providing classic examples of the genre from the 20th century to the present. It is an exhibition for this moment in which “facts” and “truth” have become unstable.
For more information about For the Record: Documentary Photographs from the Etherton Gallery Archive or the photographers included in the exhibition, contact Daphne Srinivasan at Etherton Gallery (520) 624-7370 or info@ethertongallery.com
