The Dulwich Picture Gallery in London is hosting Portrait of a City: A Century of American Photography, an exhibition running until 4 October that brings together more than 100 landmark images by some of the 20th century's most influential photographers. The show traces how rapid urban growth in American cities, particularly New York, spurred photographers to use the camera as a tool for documenting social and physical change, offering a visual history of a nation transformed by modernisation.

Featured works span decades and styles, from Lewis Hine's 1930s images of construction workers atop the Empire State Building and Edward Steichen's double-exposure portrait of the same skyscraper, to Saul Leiter's understated colour street scenes of Harlem and Garry Winogrand's fast-paced, tilted-frame shots of Park Avenue. Other photographers represented include Robert Adams, whose work examines postwar suburban expansion in Colorado, Peter Hujar, whose intimate portraits reflect New York's queer community during the Aids crisis, and Rebecca Lepkoff and Helen Levitt, both known for capturing everyday life on the city's streets.