Via The Griffin Museum of Photography
Vision(ary) is the Griffin Museum of Photography’s annual summer public art exhibition dedicated to the art of visual storytelling. This public art installation features individual exhibitions with distinct photographic styles, including banners hung on light standards and art installations around the Griffin Museum.
From the Civil Rights Movement to contemporary struggles for racial equity, gender justice, environmental protection, labor rights, immigration reform, and democratic accountability, protest has shaped the American narrative.
Photography has been central to this history—documenting resistance, amplifying voices, and creating images that define collective memory.
In the light of America’s 250th anniversary, this year’s edition, Raising Our Voices, presents photographic projects that focus on advocacy, social justice, and activism within the United States—past or present.
Vision(ary) is supported by the Winchester Cultural District, Winchester Cultural Council, John & Mary Murphy Foundation, En Ka Society, Winchester Rotary, Winchester Savings Bank, Griffin Museum Directors Circle, and other cultural and private partners. The exhibition concept and Photo Cube structures are designed by our long time producing partner, Photoville.
Ashley Gilbertson
Ashley Gilbertson
On September 14, 2008, financial markets around the world plummeted, heralding the beginning of the current economic crisis, the most severe since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Bear Sterns and Lehmann Bros. went bankrupt overnight, and trillions of dollars were invested by the federal government in bail-outs and loans. The nucleus for the crash was Wall Street, where high risk complex bonds turned into toxic assets and unregulated trading imploded.
Three blocks from the Stock Exchange and almost exactly three years later, the Occupy Wall Street protest movement began.
For two months hundreds of people occupied a small wind swept plaza known as Zuccotti Park, where tents, a kitchen, a library, and a twenty-four hour drum circle were quickly set up. Occupiers represented hundreds of different causes, though their overarching frustrations lay with economic inequality and corporate greed. Their slogan “We are the 99%” referred to the enormous income gap between the wealthiest 1% and the rest of the population.
These pictures depict Wall Street during the crash in 2008 and the Occupy movement of 2011. --Ashley Gilbertson
Mark Peterson
“The Memory Hole is a look at America from November 5, 2024 when President Trump was elected to a second term, till the present, how it has changed America. I am photographing this time for others to see knowing that in the future these images will be dismissed as fake news . As in The Memory Hole in George Orwell’s book 1984, the truth will be burned: ‘There was a memory hole in the opposite wall. O’Brien lifted the grating. Unseen, the frail slip of paper was whirling away on the current of warm air; it was vanishing in a flash of flame. O’Brien turned away from the wall. ‘Ashes,’ he said. ‘Not even identifiable ashes. Dust. It does not exist. It never existed.'” --Mark Peterson
Ashley Gilbertson and Mark Peterson have photographs included in the current exhibition "America The Beautiful", on view at Monroe Gallery through August 9, 2026.
