Drawing from works by more than 40 photographers in the ICP collection, with the addition of exhibition prints from contemporary photographers, American Job: 1940-2011 highlights the collection’s breadth and contemporary relevance by surveying the photographic response to labor organizing and strike activity, race and gender discrimination in labor, organized labor’s role in politics, labor and activism, and the intersection of labor and the social changes wrought by the economic restructurings of the twentieth century. This exhibition is guest curated by Makeda Best, photography historian.and Deputy Director of Curatorial Affairs at the Oakland Museum of California.
Organized chronologically in five sections, the exhibition explores the transformation of work in America, and with it the rise of activism and new forms of solidarity in pursuit of humane working conditions and economic equity. Including over 130 photographs, along with photobooks and a wide range of ephemera that underscore text and image based storytelling, American Job: 1940-2011 introduces lesser-known images from the ICP collection, provides new contexts for celebrated bodies of work, illustrates the contributions of professional photojournalists and community-based documentarians to the historical record of the twentieth century, and demonstrates the breadth of ICP’s collection of works from across the country.
This exhibition features works by photographers including Cornell Capa, Chien-Chi Chang, Arnold Eagle, Robert Frank, Otto Hagel, Bettye Lane, Freda Leinwand, Ken Light, Danny Lyon, Susan Meiselas, Charles Moore, Barbara Norfleet, Gordon Parks, Sophie Rivera, Accra Shepp, Eugene Smith, Dylan Vitone, Todd Webb, Dan Weiner, Bill Wood, and many more.
