American Photographers in conversation. In collaboration with the Rijksmuseum
Feb 09, 2025, 1:30 pm - 3:00 pm, Rijksmuseum (Auditorium), Museumstraat 1, Amsterdam
Tickets for the public event are sold out. You can still purchase tickets for the livestream via the buy tickets link here.Join the Rijksmuseum and the John Adams Institute in welcoming photographers from the United States whose work is on view in the major exhibition on American photography. Their collective works invite us to investigate what America is, not only in the present, but also what it has been in pivotal moments since the invention of photography itself. Captured through their lenses, events, individuals and movements of national importance are brought into focus.
Following an introduction to the exhibition by curator Hans Rooseboom, photographers Bryan Schutmaat, Sarah Sense and Nina Berman will tell us more about their work. They will explore diverse aspects of the United States in conversation with the audience and moderator Clarice Gargard (Lilith Agency).
Program information
About Bryan Schutmaat: Based in Austin, Texas, Schutmaat’s work has been widely published and exhibited. His meditations on people and place picture a wide variety of contemporary issues, from poverty to climate change. He has won numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship and the Aperture Portfolio Prize, and his work has appeared in the Atlantic, New Yorker, and National Geographic, among other publications.
About Sarah Sense: Born in Sacramento, California, Sense practices what she calls photo-weaving, combining traditional Chitimacha ad Choctaw art and craft techniques with photography. Her works investigate landscapes from a Native American perspective, focusing on the colonial impacts on the climate. She is a graduate of Parsons the New School for Design, and her work has been exhibited in major galleries and museums around the world.
About Nina Berman: Nina Berman is a documentary photographer, filmmaker, journalist and educator. Her work explores American politics, militarism, environmental issues and post violence trauma.
Read, Watch, Listen: Looking for background information in advance of the event? Read Zachary Karabashliev – 18% Gray. Using trauma as an impetus to change his life, Zack sets off for New York with a vintage Nikon. Through the lens of the old camera, he starts rediscovering himself by photographing an America we rarely see. Watch Don’t Blink by photographer Robert Frank. A documentary about the groundbreaking photographer of The Americans. Listen to Simon & Garfunkel’s America. Their 1968 anthem is steeped in national mythology and has been interpreted as both exaltation and elegy.
More about the exhibition
In more than 200 works, the Rijksmuseum has gathered a major retrospective of American photography. The medium has left an indelible mark on human history, revolutionizing the way we look at the world, be it through art, news, advertising, our everyday lives, and the digital versions thereof we fashion on social media platforms like Instagram.
Rijksmuseum moves you to The American Dream. To the real American. To unexpected recognition. The Rijksmuseum is staging the Netherlands’ first major survey exhibition of American photography.
