A beautiful look at some of the most important large-scale photographs of the past several decades

Photography Reinvented brings together thirty-five works by eighteen critically acclaimed artists who, through innovative experimentation and visionary conceptual scope, have changed the course of contemporary photography.

From the seemingly objective, straightforward style and large-scale, vibrantly colored prints of famed Düsseldorf School photographers Andreas Gursky, Candida Höfer, Thomas Struth, and Thomas Ruff to works by groundbreaking contemporary artists, including Thomas Demand, Vik Muniz, Cindy Sherman, Hiroshi Sugimoto, and Catherine Opie, Photography Reinvented traces the aesthetic, technical, and philosophical shifts of the art form during a period of substantial change. Some of the artists, such as Sherman and Demand as well as Muniz and John Baldessari, explore the nature of photography as a medium that appropriates imagery from mass culture and other sources. Others, such as Höfer and Struth, have reassessed iconic works of art and architecture, revealing the relevance of the past in our present lives. And all of these artists have made large-scale prints that create new and strangely destabilizing experiences of space for their viewers.

In an age when photography can no longer claim documentary veracity as its raison d''être, Photography Reinvented examines the medium’s redefinition, repurposing, and reimagining.

Exhibition schedule:
National Gallery of Art, Washington
September 30, 2016–January 29, 2017