Traveling Exhibits

I just returned from a two-week cross-country road trip designed mainly with national parks in mind, but we did stop at a few museums along the way where I was delighted to catch two shows we've recently covered in Fine Books.

First, at Chicago's Field Museum, I had the chance to see "Women of Vision (WOV): National Geographic Photographers on Assignment." Subscribers will recall our lengthy feature story on this exhibit in Autumn 2014. I found the selection of photographs by these eleven female photojournalists so powerful and heart-wrenching, particularly the work of Lynsey Addario whose recent book, It's What I Do: A Photographer's Life of Love and War (2015) is now on my to-read list. WOV has been traveling ever since its launch in October 2013. It remains up at the Field Museum through Sept. 11, and from there it travels to the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh.

Second, a stop at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri, allowed me to see "An Anonymous Art: American Snapshots from the Peter J. Cohen Gift," an exhibit of vernacular photography we highlighted this past winter ("Behold the Lowly Snapshot" by Andrea L. Volpe) when it was being shown at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts. Categorized simply into small groupings, the vintage photographs of anonymous men, women, and children are by turns thoughtful and humorous and, above all, very human. I was also pleased to find that the collector, Peter J. Cohen, has put together several books of these "found" images, including the very cool Snapshots of Dangerous Women (2015). The exhibit remains up through Sept. 4.

Images ©Stephanie Sinclair/National Geographic; Unknown maker, American. Double Exposure: Girls with dolls and father, ca. 1920s. Gelatin silver print, 3 ¾ x 2 ½ inches. Gift of Peter J. Cohen, 2015.9.111.