Over a Century Captured in the Everson’s Photography Exhibits: A Long Look and LIFE

Excerpt from a CNY Arts review written by Carl Mellor:

The Everson Museum currently has two photography exhibitions on display, each complete with its own identity and mission. Together, they afford viewers an opportunity to see a range of images created by well-known and more obscure photographers.

The first collection, A Long Look at Documentary Photography, 1888-2016 spans across decades. It moves from Jacob Reis’ photographs of New York City tenements in 1888 to the work done by photographers for the Farm Security Administration during the 1930s; from Bruce Davison’s 1982 exploration of coal miners’ lives in South Wales to images taken by modern-day photographers.

The second collection on display, LIFE: Six Women Photographers specifically centers photos that appeared in Life Magazine during the 1930s and 1940s. Those images helped document diverse stories—the construction of Fort Peck Dam in Wyoming, women balancing work and home lives after World War II, basic training for women enrolled in the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps, and more.

“A Long Look” encompasses various kinds of documentary photography. There’s a selection of images from the huge portfolio built up by the Farm Security Administration, a government agency that hired a squad of photographers to document scenes across the United States.

Aaron Siskind
Grocery Store, 1940
Gelatin silver print, 14 x 10⅞ inches
Everson Museum of Art; Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Donald Baxter, 82.20.17
©Aaron Siskind/Virginia Museum of Fine Arts