THE AMERICAN FAMILY ALBUM

Supermarket Protests, New Jersey, 1963
Wanderlust and encounters of the American family in pictures.
July 1 through September 18, 2016
A selection of 50 photographs that represents a collective American Family Album: an offbeat and absorbing portrait of the American experience. Unusual, timeless, irrational; these anonymous memories of America are not what we expect. The images are an elusive vision of a country without limits and challenge us to reinterpret the impact, value, and status of photographs we encounter in our daily lives. There may be no Pulitzer Prize-winning pictures in the exhibition, but the photographs are nonetheless glorious in their innocence.
Although family photo albums have only been in existence for over one hundred years, now they are virtually obsolete, often replaced by an overload of digital images scattered across our many devices. Concurrently, smaller and more advanced cameras helped contribute to the success of picture magazines and led to more photographs in newspapers. Photographers documented the major events of our collective history, with a particular emphasis on “big events” and newsworthy happenings. But these photographers also photographed the lives of average folks and their everyday unique American experiences. Professional photographers explored the American landscape in the hopes of finding average individuals in everyday settings and creating pictures that illustrate the idiosyncrasies of people, objects, and places discovered on the journey. During the heyday of magazine photography, theclip_image001 wanderlust of the American family often provided a narrative that comprised the American experience.
“The mission of photography is to explain man to man and man to himself. And that is no mean function. Man is the most complicated thing on earth and also as naïve as a tender plant.” – Edward Steichen
Woman and Poodle at Beauty Parlor, New York, 1961
Motorcycle and Poodle, New York, 1964
Beach Fashions, 1950
Fun at the Santa Monica Beach, 1948
Long Beach, California
Girl in surf, Jones Beach, New York, 1951
Kay Heffernon enjoys a hot dog and a Coke, while DDT is sprayed to supposedly demonstrate it won't contaminate her, Jones beach, NY 1948
Coney Island, NY, July 4, 1949
Long Island, New York, 1954
Man Looking in Waste Basket, Coney Island, NY, 1945
Statue of Liberty, New York Harbor, 1952
Young Americans at Lincoln Memorial, Washington, DC
Racers, West Hartland, Connecticut, 1953
Exuberance, West Hartland, Connecticut, 1953
High School Hangout
Juke box at the Vera Cruz Café, Los Angels, 1950
Outdoor Concert, Bolton, Vermont, 1972
Chicago New Year’s Eve Costume Run, 1956
Tailgating, Yale Football, 1963
Utah, 1952
Herberts Drive In, California, 1945
Route 66, Arizona, 1953
Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1969
New York City, 2006 (Thanks giving Day Parade, Sponge Bob)
Butternut Fudge, Tunbridge, Vermont, 1955
Spaghetti, 25 Cents, New York, 1945
"Be Happy", Chicago, July 4, 2000
Halloween, Brooklyn Heights, NY, 1960
Halloween, Stowe, Vermont, 1951
Rainy day in Fredricksburg, Virginia, 1948
Chelsea
Boys playing Father, Bronx, New York, 1944
Under the newsstand, the Bronx, 1947
Readers
Yale Joel — Young Bug Lovers, Clarksville, Arkansas, 1953
Children on the banks of the Kennebec River in Woolwich, Maine, 1976
Calbert Imada, The Island of Hawaii, 1980
Amateur Hour, ApolloTheater, Harlem 1961
Outward bound, Colorado, 1964
Brooklyn Dodger fans celebrating 1955 World Series victory, Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn
Fairy in the woods, Rainbow Gathering, Michigan, 2001
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