The National Gallery of Art is usually a reliable source for first-rate photography exhibitions. In recent years, it has mounted thoughtful retrospectives on Dorothea Lange, Robert Adams, and Sally Mann, as well as British photography from the 1970s and ’80s. But as I look ahead to the fall exhibition season in D.C. photography, its lineup is even more powerful than normal.
Gordon Parks, “Husband and Wife, Sunday Morning,” Detroit, Michigan (Bert Collins and Pauline Terry), 1950, printed later, gelatin silver print, Corcoran Collection (The Gordon Parks Collection), 2016.117.150
The NGA’s Gordon Parks: Camera Portraits from the Corcoran Collection has been up since mid-July and runs through January. It features 25 portraits taken by Gordon Parks, the celebrated Life magazine photographer, between 1941 and 1970, ranging from iconic images of Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali to ordinary folk. Notable works include sculptor Alexander Calder, portrayed simply through a hand fiddling with one of his mobiles, and a group of oil field workers in Alberta, Canada, that in Parks’ hands come across as equal parts gritty and fashionable.
Also on view at NGA through January is In the Library: Life in the Impressionists’ Paris. The exhibit, which includes some 40 photographs and prints that detail the city’s urban transformation in the 1870s, supports the exhibit Paris 1874: The Impressionist Moment.
Anthony Barboza, “New York City,” 1970s gelatin silver print image/sheet: 23.7 x 16.1 cm (9 5/16 x 6 5/16 in.) National Gallery of Art, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund
Briefly on view, through Sept. 22, is the photography-adjacent Robert Longo Drawings: Engines of State. It features three monumentally scaled renderings of the U.S. Capitol, the White House, and the Supreme Court, all of which were recently donated by the artist. Robert Longo, while respectful of the edifices’ power, is less than sanguine about how the three branches of government exercise that authority; he places them in dark settings, ringed by storm clouds and spindly branches reminiscent of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” Up close, you can see the smudgy imperfections of the buildings’ surfaces, especially on the Supreme Court’s marble columns and steps.
Finally—and perhaps the NGA exhibit I’m most looking forward to seeing, due to its sprawling scope—is The ’70s Lens: Reimagining Documentary Photography. The exhibit, on view from Oct. 6 to April 6, 2025, features roughly 100 works by more than 80 artists. Appealingly, many of them are less-than-household names, including Mikki Ferrill, Frank Espada, Tseng Kwong Chi, Susan Hiller, Joe Deal, Michael Jang, and Joanne Leonard.
Another reliable source of photography exhibits in the D.C. area is the American University Museum, which launched its fall crop on Sept. 7. Notable on the photography front is Endless Transformations: The Alchemy of Connie Imboden, which features 50 works by Connie Imboden, a Baltimore-based artist whose art often captures fragmented visions of the human body, ranging from early black and whites to more recent color images that pay homage to Francisco Goya.
“Endless Transformations,” Connie Imboden
Other exhibits running concurrently at AU Museum feature works in other media, including a large-scale retrospective of illustrations and more by Ralph Steadman, best known for his collaborations with author Hunter S. Thompson, and painter Mark Kelner, whose “new American landscapes” substitute suburban strip-mall signage for trees and grass.
“Skipper,” Van Pulley
The new exhibit at Alexandria’s Multiple Exposures Gallery—an all-photography venue that mounts monthly-ish shows—is Van Pulley’s Off Broadway: Grit and Grandeur. Pulley’s work often features figures making their way around the imposing architecture of New York City, frequently revealing hidden drama. The exhibit runs through Oct. 6.
Finally, Shaw’s Foundry Gallery is mounting Double Vision, a joint exhibit by Deb Furey and Gordana Gerskovic, which runs through Sept. 29. Furey paints quasi-realistic portrayals of human characters, while Gerskovic is following up her impressive 2019 and 2022 exhibits at Foundry Gallery, in which she captured overlooked but visually compelling swatches of walls and other parts of the built environment.
Check out more of our 2024 Fall Arts Guide here.