American Job: 1940-2011
Passport to Museums
American Job: 1940-2011
This photography 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.
FREE
International Center of Photography
January 23, 2025 to May 05, 2025
Learn more

Exhibition Details

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.

Additional Details

Including over 130 photographs, this exhibition 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.

Featured photographers include Cornell Capa, Chien-Chi Chang, Arnold Eagle, Robert Frank, Otto Hagel, Bettye Lane, and many more.

Guest curated by Makeda Best, photography historian and Deputy Director of Curatorial Affairs at the Oakland Museum of California.

Location

International Center of Photography
79 Essex Street
New York, NY 10002

Image: Photo by Cornell Capa, 1960/ Courtesy of International Center of Photography / Magnum Photos