Permanent Collection Installation | Recent Acquisitions in Contemporary Photography

Photography has long shaped our understanding of the world—its people, places, and the intricate relationships that connect them. In the twenty-first century, it has become a powerful means of reckoning with the visible and invisible traces of human presence on the planet, from the vast infrastructures of industry and consumption to the social and political conditions that inform identity and belonging.

Featuring recent acquisitions in contemporary photography, this installation considers the forces that shape our world today. In mesmerizing scenes, Edward Burtynsky, Richard Misrach, Abelardo Morell, and Brian Ulrich examine humanity’s profound impact on natural and built environments, revealing both the beauty and degradation of the earth’s surface. In turn, Dawoud Bey and Stephanie Syjuco reimagine portraiture to explore how individuals and communities are represented, remembered, and understood.

Expanding upon traditions of landscape, portraiture, and documentary photography, these works affirm the medium’s continued power to illuminate the changing terrain of human experience, serving as both witness and reminder of photography’s capacity to reveal, question, and connect.