Photographing Suburbia: Crewdson, Owens and Weiner
Rochelle and Irwin A. Lowenfeld Exhibition Hall, Axinn Library, 10th floor
September 24, 2007 - January 28, 2008
The photographic archive of the American suburbs in the Library of Congress includes family snapshots by new homeowners, pictures of farmland bulldozed into muddy fields for new subdivisions, shots of clogged highways and aerial photographs of symmetrical rows of box houses and sweeping arabesques of highway cloverleaves. But the creation of suburbia as a subject for art photography is a larger cultural project that reflects and contributes to our basic ideas about suburbia as a way of life. That cultural project tries to define what differentiates suburban culture from the rural culture of farm life or the urban culture of industrialization and crowded streets. This exhibition samples the work of three prominent photographers of suburbia: Dan Weiner (1950s); Bill Owens (late 1960s-early 1970s); and Gregory Crewdson (late 1990s).
This exhibition was made possible by the generosity of the lenders: Sandra Weiner, the James Cohan Gallery, New York, and Luhring Augustine, New York. Daniel R. Rubey, Ph.D., M.L.S. Dean of Library & Information Services Hofstra University Library, served as curator.