The city has long been a subject in photography, a place in which the inexhaustible rhythm of life is revealed through its changing streets, communities, and everyday moments. One only has to think of the earliest surviving daguerreotype plates by Louis Daguerre, produced in 1838, depicting the Boulevard du Temple in Paris, a busy thoroughfare that appears almost deserted due to the long exposure time required by early photographic processes. More recently, generations of photographers across the Atlantic have likewise turned their attention to the urban environment, constructing visions of the city that reflect the social, political, and cultural conditions of their time.

This fascination is the centerpiece of a new exhibition at the Dulwich Picture Gallery in South London, which—for only the second time in the gallery’s history—is hosting a collection of photography. The photographs are drawn from the DNB Savings Bank Foundation’s private collection and collectively represent the work of 34 photographers. While the curatorial choices may appear limited, they are by no means insignificant. Together, the photographs take the visitor on a journey through American city life. The city emerges as a place of extreme tension. Artistic visions coalesce with an ever-changing urban landscape: migration, exclusion, freedom, and instability are all aspects explored here.

Upon entering the first gallery room, we come across an image by Alfred Stieglitz, titled The Steerage (1907). Stieglitz’s canonical photograph, regarded as one of the earliest works of modernist photography, depicts passengers traveling between North America and Europe. Although the passengers’ exact reasons for travel are unknown, many critics have interpreted this photograph in relation to immigration, displacement, and the experience of transatlantic travel. Early trips across the Atlantic were frequently associated with the immigrant experience. American cities turned into burgeoning centers of expansion. Mass migration, primarily from Europe and from the rural American South, not only provided new means of labor, but also created an environment of rapid economic growth. It was in these surroundings that Stieglitz’s camera offered a new vision of the city. As a leading advocate for photography’s recognition as an art form, his work challenged the boundaries between documentation and artistic creation.

Walker Evans, a contemporary of Stieglitz, also dealt with these ideas in his work. Two photographs on display, initially part of Evans’s landmark book American Photographs published in 1938, explore these ideas through black-and-white tonal contrasts. One of these photographs, titled Main Street Saratoga Springs (1931), enthralls the viewer with its empty, rain-slickened street in New York and reflects the broader atmosphere of deprivation and stagnation of the 1930s, a period in which ordinary lives were affected by the Great Depression. Moving westwards to San Francisco, we turn to photographs by Dorothea Lange. Lange’s lens captures those who are displaced with sensitivity. One photograph in particular stands out: White Angel Breadline, San Francisco (1933). In it, we see a rough-hewn man with an empty cup resting in front of him, surrounded by a crowd of men with obscured faces. His appearance carries the weight of economic distress; he becomes emblematic of the nation’s economic hardships. This section of the exhibition is marked by an irreconcilable tension: these photographs are juxtaposed with 20th-century architectural marvels, such as The Maypole (The Empire State Building) (1932) by Edward Steichen. Here, much about the American city seems ephemeral, especially when looking at the communities that inhabit the city, yet its buildings and skyscrapers project a sense of permanence and lend an air of monumentality.

In the following section of the exhibition, we are introduced to photographs by Lisette Model, Arthur Leipzig, Ruth Orkin, and Weegee, all of whom were part of the Photo League. The Photo League provided these photographers with darkrooms and exhibition spaces and fostered a community united by a shared commitment to engaging with the social and political realities of their time through photography. In 1947, at the height of the Red Scare and anti-communist sentiment, the U.S. Attorney General placed the group on a list of subversive organizations and ultimately contributed to its blacklisting. This led photographers like Austro-American Lisette Model to focus increasingly on teaching alongside her photographic practice. Model’s influence as an educator and photographer, evident in her unflinching and satirical portrayals of human nature, would extend to subsequent generations of photographers, most notably Diane Arbus. A photograph on display, Model’s best-known, Coney Island Bather (1939–41), attests to her confrontational style of photography. The image immediately draws the viewer’s attention to its striking realism. The bather, a large woman in a black swimsuit, appears isolated within the frame, looking entirely away from the camera while smiling. Although this image may appear unassuming at first, the portrayal of the woman’s unconventional beauty becomes particularly significant within the context of the Red Scare. At a time when American society was moving increasingly towards conformity, Model’s lens draws attention to a subject who unabashedly embraces her own beauty, while challenging conventional ideas of femininity.

Moving on to the next section, the profound shifts in American society following the Red Scare and post-war prosperity unfold right in front of our eyes. We encounter all the great names within photography: Garry Winogrand, Diane Arbus, and Lee Friedlander—to name a few. The mood turns lighter. Every image speaks for itself. The title of the wall text, “The American Social Landscape”, attests to this. It is a clear nod to the photography of Friedlander, who famously described his subjects as the American social landscape. Broken objects, empty storefronts, street signs, and barren streets are all fragments of city life explored by him. Friedlander himself becomes a fragment of the city. He frequently interjects himself into the frame and exists within the city landscape. This is best exemplified by Chicago (Self-Portrait) (1963), in which Friedlander is standing detached in front of posters of pin-up girls. The image is divided in two, with the right side opening onto the street, where a man can be seen ambling along. The photograph draws the viewer in through Friedlander’s detached facial expression. The posters of the pin-up girls contrast sharply with Friedlander’s subdued presence. In many ways, this juxtaposition speaks to the ways in which commercial mass culture infiltrates the city, while remaining strangely at odds with the realities of those who inhabit it.

The final section of the exhibition presents us with the work of Bruce Davidson, as we enter the most democratic space of all: the subway. We are presented with graffiti-covered subway cars, rebellious teenagers looking earnestly into the camera, and finely clad women waiting for the train. Davidson’s color photographs, primarily taken between 1980 and 1985, are arranged in rows of three to create a sense of repetition and rhythm across the gallery room. The curatorial choice to present the works in rows of three overwhelms us, yet their sheer scale conveys the diversity of urban experience Davidson aimed to capture. Much about Davidson’s photo series conjures Walker Evans’s subway series taken during the 1930s. Yet, in contrast to Evans’s furtive method of photographing his subjects from beneath his coat, Davidson employed a much more straightforward technique. By engaging directly with his subjects through conversation, he captured intimate moments beneath the dim, fluorescent light of the subway. Ultimately, his photographs lay bare an individual existence set against the backdrop of the city. The travelers’ brief presence becomes a symbol of the fleeting, anonymous nature of urban life.

What remains of this exhibition as you step outside the gallery is the distinct point of view each photographer lends to their subject. The vast perspectives encountered throughout stay with you, and ultimately invite you to question the nature of urban life. We do not encounter the city as a fixed, unchanging place. Instead, we are confronted with change to varying degrees. From a contemporary standpoint, the communities represented in these photographs appear vulnerable to displacement, or are compelled to adapt as the urban landscape transforms around them. Yet beneath it all, one thing persists: each and every individual shapes the urban environment in their own way, through art, through movement, and through the simple act of inhabiting it. The city will always remain in motion, now and for years to come, and perhaps this is what makes the exhibition so compelling: the world outside waits to be observed, to be photographed.

Portrait of a City: A Century of American Photography
Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, until 4 October, 2026

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Can Heilmaier is a UK-based writer, editor and photographer. He has previously worked in publishing and editorial settings and has a particular interest in photography, film and the relationship between visual culture and society.

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