Where Are We Now?

On the eve of the country’s 250th birthday and at a period when our disagreements sometimes seem bigger than what we have in common, this exhibition surveys landscapes and street photographs made in the United States over the past seventy years.

The installation Where Are We Now? American Places and People, 1955-2025 begins with photographs taken by Swiss-born artist Robert Frank, who, in 1955, published his book The Americans, comprised of photographs he made on an extended road trip across the United States. The book was controversial because of the almost offhand way it revealed the fissures in our national life, particularly the racism and other biases that shaped public experience.

Although Frank’s photographs unsettled many citizens, his book was something of a love letter to his adopted country. This exhibition follows his spirit and surveys photographs made by many artists who probe American experience and identity in one way or another. The question in the installation title is open-ended. The photographs on view don’t offer a simple answer. Taken together, they bring us to yet another simple question: what does it look like when we try to stick together?