Join us for an introductory presentation on The ’70s Lens: Reimagining Documentary Photography by Andrea Nelson, exhibition curator and associate curator in the National Gallery’s department of photographs.
About The ’70s Lens: Reimagining Documentary Photography
Drawn primarily from the National Gallery’s permanent collection, The ’70s Lens explores how artists used the camera to examine life in the United States from a diversity of perspectives—and, in doing so, opened the practice of documentary photography to exciting new strategies and subjects. The 1970s was a decade of uncertainty: soaring inflation, energy crises, the Watergate scandal, and protests about pressing social issues (the Vietnam War, women’s rights, gay liberation, and the environment) rocked the country. This profound upheaval formed the backdrop for a revolution in documentary photography.
Activism and growing multiculturalism opened the field to underrepresented voices, while artistic experimentation fueled the reimagining of documentary formats to include color photography and conceptual practices. Featuring work by more than 80 artists, The ’70s Lens focuses on this compelling and contested moment of reinvention. The multiplicity of documentary approaches that emerged in this decade reflects a radical shift in American life and in photography itself.