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Portrait of a City review – master photographers capture the US cityscape in all its grime, grit and glory
A new review examines "Portrait of a City", an exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery in London that traces a century of American urban photography, drawn entirely from the DNB Savings Bank Foundation collection. Only the gallery's second photography exhibition, it charts two parallel stories: the growth of the modern US city and the evolution of photography as an art form, moving from early pictorialism through social documentary work to darker, more atmospheric night-time imagery.
The show features work by major figures including Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, Dorothea Lange, Lewis Hine, Ilse Bing, Mary Ellen Mark, Diane Arbus, Saul Leiter, Richard Avedon, Aaron Siskind, Weegee and Roy DeCarava. Highlights include Lange's Great Depression-era images, Louis Faurer's 1949 photograph of the RCA Building, and Weegee's stark nocturnal crime scenes, alongside short archival films that offer contrasting perspectives on some of the still photographs, such as 1931 footage of a San Francisco soup kitchen shown as a lively, upbeat scene.
In short
- Dulwich Picture Gallery hosts century-spanning US urban photography exhibition
- Features Stieglitz, Lange, Arbus, Avedon, Weegee and other masters
- Show traces city life from Depression-era optimism to nocturnal unease
Explained simply
"Portrait of a City" is an exhibition of American urban photography at Dulwich Picture Gallery in London, spanning approximately a hundred years. The collection is drawn entirely from the DNB Savings Bank Foundation, which holds a significant archive of photographs documenting how American cities developed over the twentieth century.
The exhibition explores two parallel stories: the physical growth of American cities and the evolution of photography as an artistic practice. It traces how photographers' methods and subjects changed across the decades, from early artistic approaches through documentary work capturing daily urban life to darker, atmospheric night-time imagery.
The show features work by significant photographers including Alfred Stieglitz, Dorothea Lange, Weegee and others who documented American urban life from the early twentieth century onwards. This marks only the second dedicated photography exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery, demonstrating the institution's increasing recognition of photography as a serious art form.