EXHIBITION | Where Are We Now? American Places and People, 1955–2025

Dates: December 20, 2025 – April 26, 2026
Location: Philadelphia Museum of Art, Honickman Galleries 156–157, 2600 Benjamin Franklin Pkwy, Philadelphia, PA

Curator: Peter Barberie, The Brodsky Curator of Photographs and Head of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs.

In 1955, Swiss-born artist Robert Frank published The Americans, a groundbreaking collection of photographs made during a road trip across the United States. With an unvarnished and deeply human perspective, Frank revealed the complexities, contradictions, and inequalities shaping American life. Images such as Trolley, New Orleans exposed segregation while offering intimate portraits of everyday people.

Although controversial at the time, Frank’s work ultimately became a powerful and affectionate reflection on his adopted country. As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, this exhibition begins with Frank and brings together artists working from 1955 to today, each examining place, identity, and belonging in America.

The exhibition’s title poses an open question. Rather than offering a single answer, the photographs invite viewers to reflect on the nation’s past and present—and to consider what the American experience looks like now.

For further information: https://www.philamuseum.org/exhibitions/where-are-we-now

Image:
Trolley, New Orleans / 1955 (negative); 1969 (print)
Robert Frank (1924–2019)
Gelatin silver print