Photography and the American South since 1845

Explore the American South’s distinct, evolving, and contradictory character through an examination of photography from the 19th century to the present. A Long Arc: Photography and the American South since 1845 examines how photographers working in the region have reckoned with the South’s fraught history and posed urgent questions about American identity.  

This is the first major exhibition in more than 25 years to survey the history of photography coming out of the South and to chronicle the region’s pivotal role in the medium’s development since the 1840s. Organized chronologically, A Long Arc traces the South’s shifting identity in more than two hundred photographs made over more than 175 years. 

The exhibition’s individual sections delve into the themes of photography before, during, and after the Civil War; documentary photography of the 1930s and ‘40s; images of a post–World War II South in economic, racial, and psychic dissonance with the nation; photography as catalyst for change during the civil rights movement; reflective narrative photography of the late 20th century; and contemporary photography examining social, environmental, and economic issues.     

A Long Arc: Photography and the American South since 1845 presents a richly layered archive that captures the region’s beauty and complexity. Offering a full visual accounting of the South’s role in shaping American history, identity and culture, the exhibition includes photographs by Alexander Gardner, George Barnard, Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Marion Post Wolcott, Robert Frank, Clarence John Laughlin, Ralph Eugene Meatyard, Bruce Davidson, Danny Lyon, Doris Derby, Ernest Withers, Williams Eggleston, William Christenberry, Baldwin Lee, Sally Mann, Carrie Mae Weems, Susan Worsham, Carolyn Drake, Sheila Pree-Bright, RaMell Ross, and others.